Matt Damon has one significant regret in his acting career: passing on a Mark Wahlberg movie. Damon was reportedly offered a role in Ted, the popular fantasy stoner comedy released in 2012. However, he overthought the opportunity and talked himself out of accepting the part.
In a recent interview with GQ, Damon was asked whether there was ever a project he passed on that he later realized he should have done. He replied, “I never like to say that, because I don’t want to live with the regret, but I can tell you that I passed on Ted, and I’ve never had this experience where I laughed so hard reading a script.”
Apparently, the script was so intriguing that the Good Will Hunting actor even “literally took it to dinner,” where he spent his time “reading parts of it out to my friends at dinner.” However, things took an unexpected turn for him as he explored the story, leading him to decide not to continue. He shared, “Then I just got too clever by half. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was like, Well, maybe the teddy bear’s actually the best part…So I overthought it, and I talked myself out of it.”
The Boston filming location made passing on the movie even harder
Another reason Damon looked back on the project with regret was the filming location. The movie was filmed in Boston, Massachusetts, where Damon was born, so taking on the project would have brought him back home and to his family. He added, “Because it shot in Boston, it would’ve been a chance for me to be home—my father’s passed away now, and I look back, and I go, Man, that would’ve been six months back [home].”
If Damon had taken the role in Ted, he would have played John Bennett instead of Mark Wahlberg. John is Ted’s best friend who, as a child, wished he would come to life. He is an immature but mild-mannered slacker who enjoys smoking pot with Ted. While he regrets not accepting the part, Damon feels that the role ended up in good hands. He continued, “But, again, the right actor got the part. Mark [Wahlberg’s] great, and the movie’s great, and I wouldn’t have made it any better.”
Ted is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
Originally reported on ComingSoon.
