Matt Damon and Denzel Washington both are renowned faces of two big action film series. Washington starred as the lead character in the film series The Equalizer, and the 52-year-old actor was the face of the Bourne series. Here is an interesting thing, the 68-year-old was inspired by the Green Zone actor to create his action film franchise.
Damon’s Bourne series was one of the most popular action films. During an interview, Washington stated how Damon’s well-known film franchise encouraged him to The Equalizer.
Denzel Washington stated that Matt Damon’s The Bourne Supremacy pissed him off
The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, and Matt Damon’s Bourne series each have their distinct elements that wowed audiences in various ways. However, after seeing his Courage Under Fire co-star’s film, the 68-year-old actor decided to launch his franchise. The Flight actor stated that he saw Damon’s film The Bourne Supremacy, which inspired him to develop a similar franchise. During an interview, the Fences actor said,
“I saw The Bourne Supremacy the other day and it pissed me off, he has a nice little franchise going there, maybe I could do another one of these Creasy stories.”
There also came a time when the Dogma actor wanted Washington to play Jason Bourne in the action film franchise. During an interview, the 52-year-old actor explained how he can be replaced by another actor in the Bourne series.
Matt Damon explained how Denzel Washington could have replaced him in the Bourne series
Damon has been part of the action thriller franchise since 2002, but there came a time when he had no clue about how he would lead the future projects of the franchise. Before returning in 2016 with Jason Bourne, the actor didn’t play the lead role in The Bourne Legacy. The lead character in the movie was played by Jeremy Renner but he wasn’t seen as Bourne in the movie. During an interview, the Interstellar actor shared his thoughts on how the Bourne legacy could have been carried on.
Damon suggested that just like the James Bond franchise, his action series can also cast different actors for the Jason Bourne character. The 52-year-old actor stated,
“I think what we could do, is like, you know, so you can do some movies with another actor, anyway, whether it’s Ryan Gosling or Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington, and he’s Jason Bourne. And then at the end of his one movie, or two movies, or three movies, you see them getting ready to pass the identity on to me, so it just becomes like a 007, it becomes a name that they give this certain person who’s uniquely positioned.”
Damon decided it was time to say goodbye to his character Jason Bourne and the franchise in 2007. When the Stillwater actor dropped out of the project, the film’s director, Paul Greengrass, decided to step down as well. According to reports, Bourne 4 was made without Damon since they didn’t know what the storyline would be or what else they could do with the character. Because the producers were already under contract, they chose to go with a different lead actor and director.
Source: Cheatsheet
