Matt Damon has reached out to Ben Affleck’s family to prepare for ‘Oppenheimer’.
During the latest episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?”, Damon revealed that he spoke with Affleck’s Marine veteran grandfather about the reaction to Hiroshima and the dropping of the atomic bomb. Damon plays the military leader of the Manhattan Project, General Lesley Groves, in the Christopher Nolan film.
“I remember talking to Ben Affleck’s grandfather who was a Marine. And he said, ‘When we heard about the bomb dropped, we cheered,'” Damon said, “and 50 years later, he’s telling you this and he’s saying, ‘I live with the fact that I cheered, because but this is what they were telling us, you know, they were going to fight to the last man.'”
Of note, Affleck also starred in a WWII film, 2001’s “Pearl Harbor,” with “Oppenheimer” actor Josh Hartnett.
Damon went on to say that it’s “such an impossible question” to say whether the United States was right or wrong in dropping the bomb.
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“I probably would have had a head of gray hair. It’s like, those presidents, their hair goes white,” Damon said when asked what he was going to do at the time. “It’s funny because when you look at it, you think there’s really only one choice to make, and yet you’ve looked at the people who made that choice. I mean, I don’t think Groves, for example, ever lost a night of sleep over that. He accomplished his mission. shock wave passed through them”.
The Oscar winner for “Good Will Hunting” added that “Oppenheimer” director Nolan is “one of the best directors who ever lived” and the film “plays like a thriller, like you’re on the edge of your seat the whole time.”
Damon also opened up about why he’s working more with Affleck now, from starring in ‘Air’ to co-founding the production company Artists Equity together. It turns out that another family connection between the Afflecks and the Damons was the driving force.
“We’ve been weirdly close for a long time,” Damon said. “After my dad died in 2017 and Ben was very, very close to him, it’s like something changed in us. You start to really see the end game and you start thinking, “I want every second to count.” I don’t want to waste any more time.’”
