Matt Damon says Robin Williams helped him get cast in Saving Private Ryan

Sometimes you just need that extra vote of confidence from someone whose name carries a lot of weight. This is something that Matt Damon is very aware of as he has revealed that Robin Williams is the reason he landed his role in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.

Matt Damon starred alongside Robin Williams in the former’s breakout hit, Good Will Hunting. Damon reveals, during a recent interview with “GQ“, Steven Spielberg was in Boston while the Good Will Hunting cast was rehearsing. Williams then took Damon and Ben Affleck to meet Spielberg because he believed it could only help their careers. Damon had already auditioned for Saving Private Ryan and had not been cast but he believes that Williams setting up that in-person meeting was the reason Spielberg realized the actor was right for the part:

“Robin took Ben and me to meet Steven [Spielberg] because he knew it was never a bad thing to meet the greatest filmmaker of all time and how much we’d appreciate that. I had put myself on tape and I had read for Private Ryan and I hadn’t been cast. He met me in person and said ‘I think I know you from somewhere,’ and I said ‘Well I did this movie called Courage Under Fire,’ and he goes ‘That’s the one, you know it’s funny, I said to my wife that’s the exact type of person I want to play Private Ryan, but he’s too thin.’ Because I’d lost 40 pounds, I was playing a heroin addict in Courage Under Fire. And so it was only because Robin introduced me to him that he went ‘Oh OK, no you’re the kind of guy I’m looking for for that job.”

Matt Damon would go on to play the titular Private Ryan in the acclaimed WWII film in 1998. The film tells the story of Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his men who, during the Invasion of Normandy, are ordered to search for and send home Private James Francis Ryan (Damon), the only one of four enlisted brothers still living. Damon only appears in the film’s final act but his role is crucial to the overall story as their search for him sets the movie’s narrative. Saving Private Ryan is widely considered one of the greatest war films ever made and it was a big hit with critics and audiences alike. The film grossed $216.8 million domestically and $481.8 million worldwide and it went on to be nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

What are YOUR thoughts on Robin Williams helping Matt Damon secure a role in Saving Private Ryan?