The actor has played a number of cinema’s most iconic characters
One of Matt Damon’s best-ever movies is airing on TV tonight (Saturday, March 29) for free across the UK.
The Boston actor is known for being able to act in all genres, having performed in everything from dramas to comedies over the course of his career.
Damon became a household name in 1997, when he and his best friend Ben Affleck won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting.
Finally being offered the roles he missed out on early in his career, Damon established himself as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in 1999’s The Talented Mr Ripley.
The 2000s saw Damon’s status grow even bigger, appearing in Saving Private Ryan, The Departed, and the Oceans and Jason Bourne trilogies.
Failing to hit his high standard in the early 2010s with the likes of Elysium, The Adjustment Bureau and The Monuments Men, Damon found the hit his career needed with a 2015 masterpiece.
Based on the 2011 novel by Andy Weir and directed by the legendary Ridley Scott, The Martian depicts an astronaut’s struggle to survive on Mars after being left behind and NASA’s efforts to return him to Earth.
The majority of the film is a testament to the actor’s talents, with his astronaut coming up with resources to make sure he survives on his unlikely new home.
Adding to the drama, is the all-star ensemble cast trying to rescue him that boasts Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover and Benedict Wong.
Fuelled by a killer script from The Cabin In The Woods’ writer Drew Goddard, The Martian is a lesson in how to make a perfect blockbuster.
Released in September 2015, The Martian became Scott’s highest-grossing film to date, with a staggering box office return of $630 million worldwide.
Landing seven nominations at the 88th Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor, the film somehow left the Oscars empty handed.
Reflecting on working with Scott, Damon told Entertainment Weekly: “Funnily enough, I’d never met Ridley. We’ve both been around for a while, him obviously longer than me.
“But, you know, I’ve been meeting for 20 years and we’d never even met at a cocktail party. Anyway, the first thing Ridley said was, ‘Wait, have we never met?’ I said that we hadn’t. He said, ‘Oh’.
“Then there was this pause. Then he goes, ‘This script is great. Why the f*** aren’t we doing this?’ That was it. I said okay. I was like, ‘Hey, you had me at have we ever met?’.”
The Martian airs on Saturday, March 29, on BBC One and on the BBC iPlayer at 10.20pm.
