DAMON says the action film tackles privacy versus security.
SEOUL—Jason Bourne comes full circle in the latest installment of the acclaimed spy franchise—and Matt Damon, who breathes scorching life into the ex-CIA agent and assassin, told the Inquirer why Robert Ludlum’s elusive amnesiac is angrier than ever in director Paul Greengrass’ “Jason Bourne.”
During his recent visit to South Korea to promote the movie (which begins its theatrical run in the Philippines on Wednesday, July 27), the 45-year-old actor’s soft-spoken candor was disarming, and it was easy to see where Bourne’s quiet fortitude in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds was anchored on.
Meeting Matt was devoid of the self-entitled air or flashy I’ll-win-you-over bravado that sometimes accompanied our stellar encounters with Hollywood celebrities. In our experience, actors with less to prove are often the humblest and most self-effacing.
The Oscar-winning star of “Good Will Hunting,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Behind the Candelabra” and “The Martian” was kind and courteous, even when he was explaining the dangers of espionage and terrorism rearing their ugly heads in the increasingly complex world we inhabit.
In “Jason Bourne,” the titular hero once again finds himself in the line of fire, with Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) helping him evade CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his ambitious underling, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), who trace his whereabouts after Jason uncovers well-kept secrets about his father (Gregg Henry) and his connection to Operation Treadstone—the program that turned Jason into a one-man killing machine.
Even after three action-packed outings, Matt said that there was a plausible reason for his beleaguered character to resurface, putting the “Bourne” movies in perspective: “We could have chosen to leave it at Part 3 (2007’s ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’), liberate Jason from that identity, and let him swim off happily into the sunset.
MATT Damon and Julia Stiles
Living on the margins
“If we get him back on track, however, we have to assume that 5 minutes after he swims away, he starts getting haunted by his demons. This time around, we see Jason living on the margins of society. He’s desperate, anguished and more damaged, because he’s never really resolved things for himself.
“Paul (Greengrass) said to me early on that if you believe Jason’s been living well in the last decade, then there’s no fourth movie! His real mission has to be personal to drive his desperate need [for more clarity]. It all starts with a primal conflict: ‘Who am I?’—that was the first movie.
“Then on through a kind of origin story shaped around a prodigal son returning in rage and frustration to confront father figures—it was Chris Cooper the first time (in 2002’s ‘The Bourne Identity’), followed by Brian Cox (2004’s ‘Bourne Supremacy’), Albert Finney (2007’s ‘Bourne Ultimatum’) and now Tommy Lee Jones.”
When asked what he thought made the franchise unique and relatable to viewers, Matt replied: “The stories in the series are more personal and emotional than the conventional action movie; they’re also more grounded in reality. We try to pull them out of the headlines, because we want each film to feel like it’s of its time.
“‘Ultimatum’ was very much about the war on terror. At the time, the three cities where we staged our action scenes—Madrid, London and Manhattan—were the ones that were directly affected by terrorism. So, even if we don’t say these things explicitly, they’re thematically aligned—and all in the stew of what we’re making.”
“In ‘Jason Bourne,’ the central issue is privacy versus security. In relation to the strict control of information for the sake of security, that’s an important debate that every country has to have, post-Edward Snowden—and it’s too difficult a question to have a quick answer to.
“It was revealed over the last few years that there’s been a breach in our privacy that we weren’t aware of. If that is in fact necessary to protect us, it’s the kind of conversation that we need to take part in. Do we put a premium on security over our civil liberties?”
Matt has recently been quoted praising Australia for its decisiveness to curb gun-related violence.
As noted by Reuters, these days, the chances of being murdered by a gun Down Under has declined by 72 percent since it began imposing stricter gun control laws, following the murder of 35 victims by a lone gunman in April 1996. Instructively, Australia has had no mass shootings since.
For the rest of the world that refuses to be regulated, does he think guns are a necessary evil? “They’re a reality in American life, at least,” the actor mused. “Bourne does dangerous work in dangerous places, where people usually carry a gun—so, in the world that he traffics in, yes, they’re a necessity.”
Was there any hesitation when he was approached to do “Bourne” again? Matt’s quick reply: “No. Once Paul decided to do it, that made my decision to accept the project really easy. He ‘gets’ this franchise like nobody does. So, if I was going to do this again, I felt the movie had the best chance of fitting with the other ‘Bourne’ installments we’ve made if it was with him.”
Does the actor worry about the five females in his household (he has three daughters and a stepdaughter with wife Luciana Barroso, whom he married in 2005) not liking Jason Bourne?
Matt enthused, “I don’t know if they’ll like him. Most of them have never seen the ‘Bourne’ movies—only my eldest one has.
“My youngest child is 5 years old, so she wouldn’t really understand them. Jason lives on his own and has trouble trusting people. On the other hand, I’m surrounded by five girls in my house (laughs), so my life is like the opposite of Jason’s!”