Matt Damon Opens Up About Hollywood's Toll on His Life as a Father

Matt Damon is reflecting on the toll Hollywood has taken on his life as a father. The "Bourne" star opened up about stepping back from the spotlight to be more present for his four daughters.

Matt Damon has long been one of Hollywood's most enduring stars — but the price of that success has proven steeper than he ever expected.

The "Bourne" actor is now speaking candidly about the industry's unforgiving demands and what they've cost him as a dad.

Damon is a father to four daughters — Alexia Barroso, 26; Isabella, 19; Gia, 17; and Stella, 15 — whom he raises alongside his wife, Luciana Damon. His eldest was born in Argentina during Luciana's first marriage to Arbello Barroso.

In a recent GQ interview, the actor and producer got frank about the sacrifices that come with life in the entertainment business and the effect they've had on his role as a parent.

He reflected on a period when he thrived on the relentless pace of the work — particularly in the years following his breakout turn in "Good Will Hunting," opposite the late Robin Williams.

"I don't think either of us stopped for years," Damon said of himself and longtime friend Ben Affleck in the wake of that film's success.

"I mean, I think I worked five straight years, literally out of these two duffel bags that I had. And I traveled everywhere and just literally would go from set to set. And I loved it. It was great. I loved what I was doing. I didn't want to stop."

Over the past decade, however, Damon has deliberately pulled back. Much of his energy now goes into Artists Equity, the production company he co-founded with Affleck, where he functions as a creative director — reading scripts and shepherding projects rather than starring in them.

The shift has meant considerably more time at home. "My youngest is a freshman, and I've been through this a few times and I know how quickly these years go," he shared. That awareness has made him far more deliberate about the projects he takes on.

"There's less of that kind of young person's engine of needing to prove something and more about, like, accepting work and doing it on your terms and doing it as precisely and as well as you can," he added.

Damon also spoke about his upcoming feature, "The Odyssey," a Christopher Nolan-directed production that he described as a rare, large-scale undertaking.

He noted that location-driven filmmaking of that magnitude has grown increasingly uncommon — and prohibitively expensive — a shift he said Spielberg was already flagging decades ago.

Only a handful of directors today, he acknowledged, have the standing to pull off something that ambitious. And as he gets older, opportunities like it will become even scarcer for him personally.

Yet knowing it might be one of the last made the experience unexpectedly liberating.

"I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now," he said. "And it's hard for me to do that. And I think maybe that has to do with my own nature."

"It also has to do with this career where you're always trying to figure out what's ahead because it's such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one," Damon continued. "Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I'd like."

Through the tension of balancing career and family, the 55-year-old says fatherhood has been one of the great joys of his life — including stepping into the role of stepfather.

"I jumped into the deep end with Lucy. I mean, Alexia was already 4. I was an extra dad," he told Parade in 2011, reflecting on his marriage to Luciana in 2005.

"It was very different, it's true," he said of his path into parenthood, "but I can't imagine my life having not gone down that road. I can't imagine what my life would be now. I don't want to imagine it."