-Our first guest is an Oscar winner starring in
the new film "Stillwater," which opens in theaters July 30th.
Please welcome Matt Damon!
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
-♪ Mr. Matt Damon ♪
♪ You know you can't bear ♪
♪ Your mission to get your daughter out of jail ♪
♪ Mr. Matt Damon ♪
♪ Got to take a chance ♪
♪ If you wanna see her ♪
♪ You've got to go to France ♪
-Thanks, everybody. -Oh, my God.
-Look at this. -Are you kidding me?
-Oh, man. -Come on.
-That's so good.
-You can't beat that feeling, right?
-No, it's the best. That is the best.
-Yeah, it is the greatest. [ Cheers and applause ]
Welcome back. -Yeah.
-Yeah, welcome back, everybody. Welcome back. That's great.
-Thanks for coming on the show and coming here live in studio.
We appreciate this.
-And I am so lucky to have come tonight.
Like, what a big night. -It is a big night for us, yeah.
I heard this rumor, because I know you and the family
moved out to L.A. for a few years.
-Yeah. -Probably 10, 8 years?
-Yeah, eight years.
-You may be coming back to New York.
Is that -- -Yeah, we're moving back.
-You are coming back to the city?
-Yeah. -I love it.
-Yeah, we were supposed to actually move back last year,
but with everything that happened,
I didn't want to put my kids in a new Zoom school.
-How many Zoom schools can we be in?
-Yeah, really. -Yeah, exactly, right?
-But, you know, we're East Coast people,
and, you know, there's no place like home,
so we're coming back.
-Absolutely. Oh, good. Well, welcome back.
I know you -- I have two daughters.
You have four daughters? -Yeah.
-What -- We have -- I mean, it's the cutest thing in the world.
My kids are -- Winnie just turned 8 today.
-Oh, wow, okay. That's a great birthday.
-Yeah.
-So, I'm 10, 12, 15,
and then we've got one who just turned 23.
-Wow! And can you tell the difference, the 15 and --
-Oh, yeah.
-I mean, not the difference between the two,
but I mean in age.
-No, I don't really know the difference between my kids.
I just...
-Yeah. I think I know you, right?
-You're one of mine, right?
-But, I mean, is the older one -- is it a teenager?
Is that real thing where they're like, "Oh, dad, no.
Stop." -Oh, my, yes -- Yeah, yeah.
-I'm getting eye rolls now, and --
-You are? -Yeah, definitely.
Where they used to be my biggest fan.
Anything I would do, they would laugh at and go,
"That's right, that was funny."
-So, the eye rolls -- remember when your kid started crawling
and you thought it was really cool the first day,
and then like the second day, you're like --
You turn your head for one minute and you're like,
"How did you get to Cleveland?"
Why are you wearing a Guardians hat?
How'd you know how to -- Right? [ Laughter ]
It's like, you know, "Did you buy a bus ticket?"
-How did it happen this fast?
-So, the eye-roll thing is like that.
Like, it's cute. "Oh, she rolled her eyes at me."
-And then like within a couple weeks, it's like --
It's the first snowball in the avalanche.
It's like, "Dad, oh, God, stop that.
It's like just everything I do is not cool.
-Really? -Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
Like, if music comes on and I start to dance,
it's like it's immediately shut down.
-It's like, "Please do not do that."
-"Dude, stop it now! You're embarrassing me."
I'm like, "We're the only ones here."
-Yeah, come on. We got to give -- We're family.
-I'm not -- I'm moving to the music.
It's, like, a thing that happens.
-Yeah, they won't let you do it. But mom's cool.
-Yeah, of course.
I mean, they love -- Mom's the coolest thing ever,
and she's got them convinced
and she's kind of got me convinced, too, so --
-Yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Good for you.
But I'm happy that your family's great.
I want to talk about "The Last Duel"
before we talk about your new movie.
"The Last Duel" -- you just finished this movie.
You and Ben Affleck, your buddy --
I mean, you're pals forever.
You co-wrote "Good Will Hunting" together.
-Yeah.
-This is the first script that you wrote together since then.
-That's right.
Yeah, the first movie we've written
in 25 years or something.
And we wrote with someone -- We with another
great writer named Nicole Holofcener.
And it's a movie -- It's going to come out later in the year,
but it's about the last sanctioned duel
in medieval France between these two knights,
one of whom accused the other of raping his wife,
and they fought to the death.
And it's all based on this history book we read.
And so we adapted that.
But we saw it as a story of perspective.
And so Ben and I wrote the male perspectives,
and Nicole wrote the female perspective.
And I'm really excited about it. -Wow!
-Ridley Scott directed it. -I love it.
Yeah, I love you guys are back together.
I can't wait for that.
I wanted to tell you.
Come back when that comes on, too.
-Yeah, we'll come back for that. I'll bring him.
-Yeah, bring him. Good. Yeah, I want to ask him, too.
But let's talk about your movie out now, "Stillwater."
Congrats on the great reviews for this.
You totally transform in this, by the way,
and I've seen everything you're in.
And you know I love you, but I'm like,
"Oh, this is like --" You walk different.
You stand different. The goatee. The hat. The boots.
I mean, you're from Oklahoma.
-Yeah. We went down there, and this guy
that I play is a roughneck, right?
He works on the oil rigs.
And we were really lucky.
We met these great roughnecks
who gave us kind of complete access.
-You went to Oklahoma? Really? -Yeah, absolutely.
And went, and that's where all the detail
and the performance kind of came from.
-Were they open arms like, "Yeah, let me show you what's --
-Yeah, I mean, they were, like,
understandably wary at first, you know?
Kind of like, you know, "What are you --
What are your intentions?"
When you're making a movie about a roughneck like,
"Come on, Hollywood liberal, what are you doing?"
-Yeah, yeah.
"You're not making fun of us, are you?"
Yeah. -Yeah, exactly.
And once they saw that Tom McCarthy is the director,
Tom and I were, what our movie was,
and that we were just trying to get it accurate,
they were amazing and took us around to their oil rigs,
took us, you know, to their families's, like,
barbecues in the backyard, which was just amazing.
It was such an insight into these guys
and how -- They just completely helped the performance.
And also, like, you know, we're sitting in the backyard,
and, like, then -- I mean, not a backyard.
Don't think back-- Like, think
like big, sprawling Oklahoma, rural, beautiful landscape.
And, like, the teenagers kind of whisper something
to their dad, and their dad is like, "Alright."
And, like, the shotguns come out.
-Really? -Yeah.
Well, they wanted to take a run at Jason Bourne.
And, you know... -Yeah, of course they do.
"Jason Bourne's here."
-I'm like, "Yeah, alright, kids. Come on, let's go."
"I'll show you how to..." [ Imitates gun cocking ]
-We're, like, you know, shooting skeet
and eating barbecue.
It's basically the best day ever.
-Oh, my gosh.
Isn't it amazing how -- I mean, gosh,
you know, everything in this country is gorgeous,
but, really, we don't even get a chance
to even explore a second of it.
But if you go to Oklahoma, you're like, "Oh, my gosh.
This is --" -I know.
Well, it's a great thing about my job, actually.
It's one thing that -- You know, that research phase, like --
Just because I'm an actor, people kind of,
you know, throughout my life,
have accepted me into their -- You know, it's like,
"Hey, I'm trying to research this.
Can you help?"
And they're like, "Yeah, come on.
Let me show you how I live."
-Yeah. -And it's the coolest thing.
I always leave those trips feeling like what binds us
is so much greater than what divides us.
And I always leave those trips
kind of angry at politicians.
-Yeah, exactly, yeah. Exactly, right?
It's like, "Oh, yeah, we could all get along.
This is -- Actually, we're all here together."
The movie is -- It's tricky.
It's your daughter basically goes to France,
and she's accused of murdering someone that she did not.
A murder that she did not commit.
And you have to go try to talk to her --
she's in prison -- and figure out what
actually went on and what's going down.
-Yeah. It's -- The movie starts,
and you realize this roughneck, this guy from Oklahoma,
is traveling, and he ends up in Marseille, France.
And you're like, "What is going on?"
And it turns out he's visiting his daughter,
who is already four years into a sentence for a murder
that she didn't commit.
And so it looks it might be a thriller,
like one of those, like, awesome Liam Neeson movies,
where he's like, "I have a particular set of skills."
You know?
But it's not that at all.
So I just want to --
Please don't go to the movie thinking it,
because it really is more of a drama.
It's like -- You know, it's got
some of those thriller elements, but it's about a real guy
trying to really do his best,
and he doesn't really have the tools that he needs.
He doesn't speak the language.
He doesn't understand the culture.
He's just trying to help because he's kind of got this
damaged relationship with his daughter
and he's just trying to make it right.
-But, also, as any good movie, it has a couple good twists
in the end.
It's -- Whoo! You didn't see it coming.
You're like, "What?!"
We were lucky to go to a screening,
which I was just psyched to go to a movie theater.
-Yeah. -With people.
-Yeah. -And I go, "Oh, my gosh."
And I was just even just getting kind of emotional.
I saw some footage from you at Cannes.
You got a standing ovation for this film.
-Yeah.
-And you get a little choked up because you go like,
"Yeah, I miss all this stuff.
We kind of take it for granted."
-Yeah, but it's like tonight. It's just the best.
Like, we belong in rooms together.
Like, that's -- Yeah. Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Matt Damon in "Stillwater."
Take a look at this.
-Hey!
Hey! What happened?
-I'm sorry.
I just -- I can't talk to that guy anymore.
He was just saying some horrible things.
-Like what?
-Like he just wants to put an Arab kid in jail.
You know, he doesn't care which one.
-That's it?
-That's it? What do you mean, "That's it"?
He's a racist.
-Okay, he's a racist. We've still got to talk to him.
-No, I don't talk to him, no.
-Well, he might know something. -No, he doesn't know something.
Bill, we're not going to send an innocent boy to jail.
-My daughter is innocent.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-So, by the way, before -- Thanks.
Before you invite him out, can I just say
"Ted Lasso" is the greatest thing,
that Jason Sudeikis is so awesome?
-Yeah. I understand -- Yeah.
-I was so happy for -- Yeah, It's so good.
It's so good. I'm so happy for that guy.
-Yeah, me too. I agree with you.
Matt Damon, everybody. That's what I'm talking about.
"Stillwater" opens in theaters July 30th.