Fashion Wire Daily LA - Take a close look at Matt Damon in his new film "The Bourne Identity," and you'll see a changed man. Can you say "beefcake"? "I was probably in the best shape I've ever been in," Damon says with a broad smile. "I really went overboard because I had like four or five months of training. I was boxing and doing martial arts and I was doing all this weapons training."
It was fortunate that the handsome actor's busy schedule allowed him to take the time to get into shape, for as Damon tells it, he didn't exactly have a set of six-pack abs when he signed on to play the role of Jason Bourne, a highly-trained CIA operative suffering from amnesia, and took home a $10 million paycheck for his performance.
"When I first saw Doug [Liman, the film's director], he said, 'Pull up your shirt,' and so, I pulled up my shirt, and he goes, 'Oh god, oh god,'" he chortles, remembering the shock on Liman's face. "So I said, 'No, in three months, don't worry, it's going to be hard as a rock!'"
But despite his successful physical transformation into an action hero, Damon isn't quite sure he's ready to become the next James Bond, despite the fact that the character he plays appears in a number of Robert Ludlum thrillers besides the one on which the movie is based.
"I didn't sign up for a sequel," he admits somewhat sheepishly. "I think that they have everyone else locked in for a sequel, but I didn't know--this was my first foray into this kind of action movie and so I didn't know if I was really going to like it. But I did end up really liking it. I thought that it was just kind of interesting and a little different."
If a sequel is planned, it will have to wait until Damon finishes his commitment to "This Is Our Youth," the Kenneth Lonergan play he is currently starring in on London's West End. But that's the only thing that would stand in the 31-year-old's way when it comes to commitments, for the actor is quick to state that he has no other priorities except his work at the moment.
"I have no plans to get married or have kids. I've got my nephews, and that's about all the responsibility that I can handle right now," he says honestly. "I'm not engaged [despite reports in the press that he is]!"
He does acknowledge having a girlfriend, aspiring actress Odessa Whitmire, but Damon insists that anything beyond that relationship is not in the cards at the moment.
"Relationships are certainly important, and friendships and everything like that is really important, and in fact, I'm trying to be much more balanced about all that stuff now because it's been just kind of work for a really long time," he reveals. "So, in terms of family and all that--which is such a big step--I think that once I kind of go down that road, I really want to be just doing that, be as obsessive about that as I have been about work. I mean, I do want kids. I'm just not there yet."
