While promoting his latest, Elysium, in India, star Matt Damon spoke with The Times of India about the recent news that his longtime friend Ben Affleck had been cast opposite Henry Cavill in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman/Batman film.
“I think it will be great,” he says of Affleck as the caped crusader. “It will be terrific. I know there are a lot of people grousing on the internet. I just think it’s kind of funny. You know, he’s not playing King Lear. It’s Batman! Certainly within his skill set. If anybody saw ‘Argo’ or ‘The Town,’ and all the work he’s been doing lately, it’s way more nuanced and interesting and way more difficult than Batman! Batman just sits there with his cowl over his head and whispers in a kinda gruff voice at people. Bruce Wayne is the more challenging part of the role, and Ben will be great at that… But it’s safe to say I won’t be Robin.”
Although he didn’t specifically address the rumor that popped up online yesterday that he might be up for returning to the franchise launched with his 2002 actioner The Bourne Identity, Damon says he bears no ill will towards last year’s The Bourne Legacy, which shifted the action to focus on a new character, Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner.
“They were just trying to revitalize that franchise and I didn’t mind at all,” he says. “It didn’t have anything to do with the movie that I made. It makes sense for a studio to keep those franchises as alive as they can, it makes business sense for them. I don’t begrudge anybody for that. I am a huge fan of Jeremy. I don’t equate my Bourne movie with his. He didn’t play the part of Jason Bourne. It’s a totally different thing.”
Elysium in theaters now, Damon can be seen coming up in Terry Gilliam’s Zero Theorem and in George Clooney’s The Monuments Men.
(Photo Credit: Nikki Nelson / WENN.com)
