Robin Williams Helped Matt Damon Win Saving Private Ryan Role

Hollywood can usually really feel like a small place, and quite a lot of instances it’s extra about who you understand than what you understand. The historical past of the film enterprise is filled with little coincidences and fateful encounters that go on to reverberate across the trade for years, and Matt Damon not too long ago shared a story of his personal.

When Steven Spielberg was in search of any individual to play the title character in Saving Private Ryan, he considered Damon as the best candidate however deemed him a bit of too skinny after he’d misplaced 40 kilos to play a heroin-addicted veteran in 1996’s Braveness Underneath Hearth. Nevertheless, Robin Williams ended up taking part in the center man between the filmmaker and actor.

Williams and Spielberg turned shut pals after working collectively on Hook, whereas the funnyman and Damon each received Academy Awards for his or her contributions to Good Will Looking. In a brand new interview with GQ, Damon revealed that an invite to satisfy the legendary filmmaker at Williams’ request was one of many largest the reason why he ended up securing the gig on Saving Personal Ryan.

“Robin took Ben and me to satisfy Steven as a result of he knew it was by no means a nasty factor to satisfy the best filmmaker of all time and the way a lot we’d recognize that. I had put myself on tape and I had learn for Personal Ryan and I hadn’t been forged. He met me in individual and mentioned ‘I believe I do know you from someplace’, and I mentioned, ‘Effectively I did this film referred to as Braveness Underneath Hearth’.

And he goes, ‘That’s the one. You recognize it’s humorous, I mentioned to my spouse that’s the precise kind of individual I need to play Personal Ryan, however he’s too skinny’. As a result of I’d misplaced 40 kilos, I used to be taking part in a heroin addict in Braveness Underneath Hearth. And so it was solely as a result of Robin launched me to him that he went, ‘Oh okay, no you’re the sort of man I’m in search of for that job’.”

Tales like these are fascinating to listen to, and never solely as a result of it continues to boost Robin Williams’ status as one of many true greats. If it hadn’t been for Good Will Looking, and even Hook for that matter, then Saving Personal Ryan might have turned out as a totally completely different film, though the three of them couldn’t be extra completely different.