“Promised Land” is the first Hollywood film to deal with the hot-button issue of fracking. Written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski as an energy executive and an environmental activist, respectively, the pair battle over a small Midwest farm town that’s preparing to vote on whether to allow drilling for natural gas. The movie, out now, was directed by Gus Van Sant.
Downtown resident Damon, 42, spoke to The Post about fracking, fame and more.
You originally planned to direct “Promised Land.” How would your version have differed from Gus’?
It probably wouldn’t have been as good. Gus is one of the great directors on the planet. Our joke is that my biggest contribution as a producer was firing myself as a director. Which is not totally untrue.
Ben Affleck offered input on the script, didn’t he?
He read probably three or four drafts. We had great input from friends. When it was finished, everyone from Steven Soderbergh to Michael Douglas looked at it and gave feedback. At this point, I can’t remember what the feedback was. But certainly if Ben gave a note, I probably took it.
Was it awkward for you when Ben’s career was stumbling while yours was roaring?
Yeah. It was more awkward, because the perception of him was so wrong. I’ve known him for 32 years, and it was just painful to be a friend of his and look at him getting kicked in the teeth and dragged through the press like that. And the guy that was getting dragged through the press wasn’t even my friend. People’s perception of him was so wrong. I’m so happy that he’s back where he is and not at all surprised. I’ve always been a huge believer. I was a believer when we were taking the Amtrak from Boston to New York to audition for “The Mickey Mouse Club” when we were 17 and 15 years old. I was the guy sitting next to him saying, “You’re great! You’re going to make it.” I bought the stock very low.
What would have to happen for you to return to the Bourne franchise?
Just two things: It would be that Paul Greengrass was directing it and that we knew what the hell we were doing. That really was our stumbling block. We wanted to do it. This was a few years ago. He called and said, “People keep coming up and asking if there’s going to be another. These are the moments you live for as someone who makes movies. You have an audience that wants it. Let’s go make a great movie.” I said, “Great!” A couple days later, we were like, “What the hell do we do?” The problem was that the studio needed a Bourne movie in theaters in 2012 because of the contract they had with the [Robert Ludlum] estate, or else they lost the whole thing. Suddenly it was 2011. We literally had nothing. We couldn’t risk it. The studio came up with this other way to get a movie out, and now there’s breathing room again. But there’s still no story and no script. If there was one, I’d be first in line to go make it.
When’s the last time you talked to Paul about it?
Oh, two weeks ago. We talk a lot. We’re always looking for stuff to do together, and Bourne comes up every time we talk. We’ve held out at this point because we didn’t have it and we’re not going to go until we have a script. I talked to Jonah Nolan [director Chris’ brother] about it, because he did such a great job with the Batman mythology. He’s a friend, and he really took a hard charge at it and couldn’t crack it, so that said a lot.
Speaking of Batman, have you ever been offered a superhero role?
I got offered “Daredevil” way back when. That was the comic Ben and I read growing up. But the script wasn’t there, and then Ben did it, and I was like, “Dude, why are you doing this movie?” Ben, being the perennial optimist, explained the eight things that needed to happen to fix the script, and he was, of course, right. But he wasn’t the director. Although the movie was very successful, it wasn’t the movie he wanted to make.
What’s your vote for Best Picture this year?
There’s a bunch I haven’t seen. I haven’t seen “Silver Linings Playbook” or “Zero Dark Thirty.” I’ve been remiss, and my screeners haven’t come in, and I have four little kids, man, so I don’t go to the movies much. There are years that I don’t vote because I don’t see everything, so I’m diligent about that.
What appealed to you about playing Liberace’s lover in next year’s “Behind the Candelabra”?
Steven Soderbergh was directing it, and Michael [Douglas] was going to play Liberace. Just to be there when he did that, I’m a huge fan of his, so I wanted to be a part of that. Then Richard LaGravenese wrote this incredible script. It’s just beautiful, one of the best things I’ve read. It was unlike anything I’d ever read. There are points where you go, if this was a man and woman, this is kind of too intimate, I probably shouldn’t watch this. But it’s a man and a man.