Actor Matt Damon is one of the most talented stars in the entertainment industry right now. He once again proved his versatility in Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Oppenheimer. In the past, the actor has starred in many blockbuster hits, but he has also missed out on some iconic roles.
Aside from small uncredited cameos in Thor: Ragnarok and Deadpool 2, Damon has never appeared in a superhero film. He once revealed that he almost played a role in two Batman movies. He first lost the opportunity in 1997’s Batman & Robin then in 2008’s The Dark Knight.
Matt Damon auditioned for the role of Harvey Dent
In 2021, actor Matt Damon appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and talked about the time he had to turn down a role in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 movie The Dark Knight,
“Well, Dark Knight was a small role that I was offered. It wasn’t Heath or Christian’s part. There was some other big movie, some big part that I was doing where I was like, ‘Well, I can’t play Harvey Dent, this is a relatively small role, but I am headlining this other thing. But you gotta be sanguine about it and go, ‘It all works out.’ At this point, I passed on the biggest payday in the history [of cinema], accidentally, so I could never do worse financially, I could never commit a worse financial error.”
Fortunately, Damon got the opportunity to work with Nolan later in his career, in 2010’s Inception and 2023’s Oppenheimer.
Matt Damon was ready to cut his salary to play Robin
During the interview, Damon also revealed that he was shortlisted for the role of Robin in 1997’s Batman & Robin, however, he couldn’t get the role despite accepting less money,
“In 1993, I was one of the final three to play Robin in the George Clooney/Joel Schumacher Batman. Chris O’Donnell had the part, but they were haggling over money, and so the studio was flexing by flying two other people to screen test, but they wanted Chris, but they wanted him for a price. And I knew Chris and I remember calling him and being like, ‘I’ll work for a quarter of what that dude’s [asking for]. I want the job! So I flew in and auditioned for Joel, but they always intended it [for Chris.]”
Call it Damon’s Luck, 1997’s Batman & Robin is often labeled as the worst Batman movie of all time. There were a number of reasons behind its failure like, the poor casting choices, cringy dialogues, studio interference, and lack of depth and emotion.
Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast
