Matt Damon

Matt Damon had been acting in movies since the late 1980s, but it wasn't until "Good Will Hunting" in 1997 that he achieved movie star status. This surprise hit also was notable for having a script by Damon and co-star Ben Affleck that won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay; and Damon received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role as a working-class Boston janitor who is a genius. In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano talk about an actor whose nice guy persona ensures that audiences really care about the diverse characters he has portrayed. Whether fighting in World War II in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), trying to figure out who he is in the thriller "The Bourne Identity" (2002) and its sequels, playing rugby in the South African-set "Invictus" (2009), or being lost in space in "The Martian" (2015), Matt Damon always has us rooting for him.