Matt Damon Says Clint Eastwood Shut Down His Request to Film More Takes in 2009’s Invictus: ‘You Wanna Waste Everybody’s Time?’

Matt Damon is looking back on his first time working with Clint Eastwood and the brutal lesson he learned on day one.

The 55-year-old actor reflected on joining the cast of 2009’s Invictus, and what it meant to collaborate with a director he had long admired during a recent appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast.

During the conversation, Damon highlighted the intense preparation that went into his role.

“So I was playing a South African rugby player, and that’s a really tough accent to do,” Damon explained, noting he “spent six months” working with a dialect coach to nail the accent of rugby player Francois Pienaar – the real-life captain of South Africa’s national rugby team.

“[The coach] would come in from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday,” he said. “It was a lot of work.”

Hoping to ensure his hard work was reflected in his performance, Damon arrived on set assuming he would have multiple tries to get it right, only to be shut down.

“I showed up, and I am ready, and it’s my chance to work with one of my heroes,” Damon told O’Brien. “The very first take, I did it… There are a number of ways I’m thinking of doing the scene, and he just goes, ‘Cut, print, move on.’ ”

“I go, ‘Hang on, hang on, hang on, boss. I want to, you know, I want to do another one. That was the first one!’” he recalled. “[Eastwood] goes, ‘Why? You wanna waste everybody’s time?’ And I went, ‘No, I guess we’re moving on.’ ”

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Nevertheless, Damon made it clear on the podcast that the exchange left no hard feelings. The Good Will Hunting actor emphasized that “there was a kindness” to Eastwood’s rejection and called the filmmaker “a lovely guy.”

“His whole mentality was … your crew will go to the ends of the earth for you if as long as you’re not taxing them on every shot,” Damon explained. “When we need to get in there, we get in there. But for the most part, we can … professional actors are gonna show up with something good. We keep the momentum.”

Invictus centered on Nelson Mandela’s efforts to unite a post-apartheid nation through the country’s hosting of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The film was nominated for three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Damon.

Along with Damon, the movie also starred Morgan Freeman, Tony Kgoroge and Adjoa Andoh.