MATT DAMON makes his first appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” airing Wednesday, March 2nd. “The Adjustment Bureau” star talks about being a Harvard drop out, having more kids, turning 40 AND what lesson he learned by meeting his wife (it has to do with beer)!
On dropping out of Harvard…
Ellen: You went to college, to Harvard, and you’re just short of actually graduating. Do you think you’ll go back?
Matt: No, I don’t think now.
Ellen: You can get a good job though. Laughs.
Matt: Well, that was always my thing. I was an English major. I felt like I was writing professionally so I didn’t need to go back and get my degree. I got a lot out of the experience though. It really was a great experience for me. I spent more than four years there. I’d leave when I would get a job because I was already acting professionally. I feel like I got everything I needed to get from that experience.
Ellen: It’s nice to say that you went to Harvard. Doesn’t matter if you graduated.
Matt: Well, actually, compared to some of the other drop outs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, I’ve got some work to do.
Ellen: You’re a slacker.
Matt: Exactly. Laughs
On having more kids…
Ellen: Do you think you’re done or you want to have a whole bunch?
Matt: Oh, we’re done. This is a whole bunch. I don’t know how people with more than four [kids] do it. We rely on our oldest one a lot. Sometimes we just leave her with all the kids and then go away. Laughs
Ellen: That’s what I would do. I would adopt an 18-year-old and then have them take care of any others that come along. You start with the older and then you get younger ones. Laughs.
Matt: George Clooney used to have a joke. When people would say, “Are you going to have kids?” And he’d say, “No, but I’m going to adopt an 18-year-old Russian girl.” Laughs He was younger. It wasn’t so weird then. Laughs
On getting older….
Ellen: How old are you?
Matt: 40.
Ellen: Do you like that you’re getting older?
Matt: I actually love it because when I turned 40, I felt a great sense of calm. Maybe I’ll freak out in six months or something. All the big questions that weren’t answered when I turned 30, are all kind of [answered now.]
Ellen: What were those questions?
Matt: Well I always hoped that I would meet someone that I wanted to spend my life with and start a family with and then that happened. But before that happens, you’re going, “I wonder if I’m ever going to meet somebody.” And then I met her and everything got easy after that.
On how Matt met his wife…
Matt: I decided to do this movie with the Farrelly brothers in 2002. I met with them and we talked about it. I made the decision to do that which was a big decision. We were supposed to shoot in Hawaii and then the movie got moved to Miami. I had never really hung out in Miami. One night in the middle of the shoot, the crew, a couple guys, said, “We’re going to get a beer somewhere.” I said, “I’m not really into it.” They said, “Come on,” and kind of dragged me along. We ended up at a bar where my wife was the bartender. I literally saw her across a crowded room, literally, and eight years and four kids later, that’s my life. I don’t know how else our paths would’ve crossed if that didn’t happen. If all those things didn’t happen.
Ellen: The moral is to drink beer.
Matt: The moral is that when you’re tired, suck it up and go to the bar because you might meet your wife.
Photo Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.
