Matt Damon opens up about sacrificing family life for career

Matt Damon built an enduring career in Hollywood with several classic movies under his belt, but there were private sacrifices he had to make along the way.

The 55-year-old actor got vulnerable about how his demanding career affected his role as a parent, in a new interview.

The Good Will Hunting star said, “There’s less of that kind of young person’s engine of needing to prove something and more about, like, accepting work and doing it on your terms and doing it as precisely and as well as you can. I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now,” in conversation with GQ.

Damon, who shares kids Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, as well as Alexia, 26, with his wife Luciana, added, “And it’s hard for me to do that.”

The Interstellar actor continued, “I think maybe that has to do with my own nature. It also has to do with this career where you’re always trying to figure out what’s ahead, because it’s such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one. Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I’d like.”

Despite the downsides of his job, Damon previously noted that fatherhood has helped him connect deeper with his work as an actor. “I feel like fatherhood has made my job a lot easier in a lot of ways. All those emotions that I used to have to reach for are just readily accessible. I don’t have to twist myself into knots to find something—it’s just sitting right there all the time.”