9 Things You Didn’t Know About Matt Damon

Matt Damon is one of those Hollywood stars where it really seems he can do no wrong. He is recognized not only as one of the industry’s most popular actors, but is also one of the highest-grossing of all time with work leading him to one Oscar and two Golden Globes, among several other accolades. While he may be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he is also one that stays out of the spotlight and out of headlines, making him even more interesting to fans! So, here are 9 things you never knew about Matt Damon:

9. Education

Matt Damon first attended Cambridge Alternative School before going to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School where he was a very good student. Afterwards, at the urging of his parents, Damon attended Harvard University, but ended up dropping out only 12 credits short of graduating in order to pursue acting full-time.

2

8. Net Worth

So how much is one Hollywood’s most “bankable” stars worth? Well, it seems Matt Damon has an estimated net worth of a whopping $140 million! Back in 1995, Damon was paid $20,000 to appear in The Good Old Boys and only four years later he was paid $5,000,000 to star in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Almost a decade later and he was paid $20,000,000 for 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum and a whopping $25,000,000 for The Martian! With the pay days Damon pulls in and box office blockbusters he delivers, it is safe to say he won’t have to worry about his finances ever again.

3

7. Early Life

Matthew Paige “Matt” Damon was born on October 8, 1970 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Damon has one older brother Kyle and from a young age the two were pressured about getting a good education because of their well-educated parents. Kent worked as a stockbroker while Nancy was an early childhood education professor at Lesley University; however, the two divorced when Damon was only two years old. As a result, Damon along with his brother Kyle moved back to Cambridge with their mother where they lived in a six-family communal house.

4

6. Too Short

Matt Damon definitely has a lot going for him, but things weren’t so easy for the star growing up. Damon has opened up about his life when he was a teenager only a couple of times, and has described himself as lonely and he always felt like he didn’t belong. He was also self conscious because he believed he was too short in comparison to the other boys, and has said that his first two years in highschool were “terrifying” because of his “short stature.”

5

5. BFF

It is not news that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are the best of friends, but their friendship began well before they achieved fame thanks to Good Will Hunting. The pair actually grew up not too far from each other in Massachusetts before they became friends in the third grade, and in a strange twist, they are distantly related! Damon is Affleck’s tenth cousin once removed as they are both descendants of a man named William Knowlton Jr. who came to America from England in the 1630s. While trying to find work together, they actually shared a joint bank account in order to try to support each other, and Damon has said that in 1995 he was paid $20,000 to be in The Good Old Boys which was just enough to keep himself and Affleck from getting other jobs so that they could focus on writing Good Will Hunting.

6

4. Above and Beyond

One of the reasons Matt Damon’s films are almost always hits is because of his dedication to each and every role, no matter how big or how small, instantly increasing the quality of the film. One of Damon’s most memorable sacrifices to his work was back in 1995 when he lost 40 pounds in only 100 days to play an opiate-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire, and although the film gained him notice, the extreme weight loss reportedly almost killed him. Then when Damon once again had to lose weight to play Private James Ryan in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks didn’t want him in the role because he thought he was too skinny!

7

3. Personal Life

Damon’s first high-profile relationship was when he dated his Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver after which he went on to have a two-year relationship with Winona Ryder. He then dated Odessa Whitmire from 2001 to 2003 who was known for being the former personal assistant to both Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck. In April of 2003, Damon met Luciana Bozan Barroso when he was filming the movie Stuck on You in Miami. They began to date and were eventually engaged in September 2005 and then married in a small civil ceremony only a few months later on December 9, 2005. Together the pair have three daughters: Isabella, Gia Zavala, and Stella Zavala, while Damon is also the stepfather to Luciana’s daughter from a previous marriage, Alexia.

8

2. Boring Famous Life

Despite being a very well-known actor and at the top of the A-list, it isn’t often that Matt Damon finds himself in magazines from paparazzi pictures, and that is because he is so boring, according to him. “I’m not being a monk. I live my life in New York. I have a girlfriend, but it’s not cost-effective for paparazzi to follow us. They can get one picture of us walking down the street,” he said in the early 2000s. He also added, “Now I feel like I have an unspoken deal with the paparazzi; I won’t do anything publicly interesting if you agree not to follow me.”

9

1. Former Smoker

Like everyone, Damon has had some vices, one of which was smoking. In 2004, Damon turned to clinical hypnosis in order to kick the habit which he had for decades. In an interview he later revealed that he actually stopped smoking in hopes of improving his sperm to have children. “Once you realize the consequences, it’s no longer an option for you to smoke. I think that applies to any addiction.”