Matt Damon has been on quite a journey as of late.
The blockbuster star criss-crossed the globe in recent weeks for high-profile stops to promote his starring turn as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey, which is dominating the box office and earning Oscar buzz. But he just ducked into a much more intimate place — the Criterion Closet — for a walk down memory lane to revisit some classic films.
“Hey, this is Matt Damon. I’m in the Criterion Closet. There’s just an incredible collection here, and I’m just going to randomly grab some stuff and say what comes to mind,” he said in kicking off what has become a beloved stop for movie stars and auteurs on their promo rounds. He first picked up Purple Noon, a 1960s crime thriller film directed by René Clément and based on Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Damon toplined Anthony Minghella’s 1999 version, and said that he never watched Purple Noon because he didn’t want to, nor did Minghella want him to, so as not to color their own adaptation. “The movie that [Anthony] did have me see for Ripley was actually Knife in the Water. It was just to get a sense of the aesthetic and the boat work we were going to do. But I remember it being wonderful,” Damon noted.
