Matt Damon: 'I'm not running for president'

Matt Damon has insisted that he has no plans to run for the US presidency.

Filmmaker Michael Moore recently praised Damon for standing up for his beliefs and called on the star to launch a presidential campaign.

Moore said at the time: "I think that [Damon] has been very courageous in not caring about who he offends by saying the things that need to be said here, and if you want to win, the Republicans have certainly shown the way - that when you run someone who is popular, you win."

A photographer recently questioned Damon on whether he has any plans to enter politics, prompting the actor to reply: "No sir!"

Damon added to TMZ: "I think there are probably better choices out there."

The Oscar winner supported US President Barack Obama in the 2008 elections, but recently admitted that he has been disappointed by Obama's first term of office.

Damon attended a teachers' rally last month to support changes to standardised school testing for students.

He will next star with Gwyneth Paltrow and Marion Cotillard in Contagion, which opens on September 9 in the US and on October 21 in the UK.

US left wants Matt Damon as next president

Even in the increasingly wild world of American politics, it seemed an especially crazy idea: Matt Damon for president? After all, the handsome actor, whose boyish good looks belie the fact that he has just turned 40, is still best known for his early role in Good Will Hunting, where he played a working-class Bostonian.

Since then, he has won plaudits in Hollywood for solid work in films ranging from action flicks to Invictus, which told the story of post-apartheid South Africa’s rugby World Cup triumph.

So why is Damon’s name being mentioned in the context of the 2012 race for the White House and a possible liberal challenge to Barack Obama? The simple answer is to blame leftwing firebrand Michael Moore.

Moore, in a discussion with the liberal politics blog Firedoglake, raised the issue as he talked about his frustration with Obama, who many American leftists see as ignoring them while compromising with the Republican party. Moore called Damon’s political stances in recent years courageous and urged him to run, despite there being no hint from the actor that he would care to.

In a nod to the acting past of two-time Republican President Ronald Reagan, Moore said: “The Republicans have certainly shown the way that when you run someone who is popular, you win. Sometimes even when you run an actor, you win.”

The suggestion quickly spread across the media, generating a lot of chuckles as well as predictable outrage from conservative pundits. But the suggestion showed two things that are not so easily dismissed. First, quietly and with impressive charm, Damon has emerged as an eloquent and fierce spokesman for a slice of liberal America. On everything from the Iraq war to education policy, he has been happy to take a stand and, rather than praise the president, he has come out publicly to say Obama has “mishandled his mandate”.

Second, it showed that US, more than any country in the world, has a fluid boundary between the worlds of entertainment and politics.

From Reagan to Clint Eastwood, Sonny Bono to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Franken and many more, the list of US actors and performers turned politicians is lengthy and even distinguished.

“The kind of character that pursues an acting career in U.S. is often the same kind of character that pursues a political career. You have to stand up and make people like you and be good on TV,” said Professor Robert Thompson, a popular culture expert at Syracuse University. So, Matt Damon for president? In 2012, almost certainly not. But one day? You never know.

Matt Damon hits out at Barack Obama

Actor Matt Damon has criticised US President Barack Obama for failing to fulfil his promises.

Damon campaigned heavily for Obama to win the presidential elections in 2008, but now feels bad on his failure to fix the US economy and unemployment problem, reports contactmusic.com.

"I think he's rolled over to Wall Street completely. The economy has huge problems. We still have all these banks that are too big to fail. They're bigger and making more money than ever," he told The Independent.

"Unemployment at 10 percent? It's terrible... They had a chance that they don't have any more to stand up for things. They've probably squandered that at this point. They'll probably just make whatever deals they can to try and get elected again," he added.

The actor says he isn't happy with Obama's handling of education in the country.

"They have to get people who actually know about educating kids in positions of power. Now they're trying to get business people to come and manage schools like they're factories. It's not going to work," he said.

Matt Damon, Ben Affleck paid for auditions from joint bank account

Matt Damon has revealed that he shared a bank account with best friend Ben Affleck before they rose to fame.

He said that they often used to share their funds to pay for audition trips.

"I started coming down here to New York by myself with money I had made in local commercials in Boston," the Daily Express quoted Damon as telling 'Piers Morgan Tonight'.

"Ben and I actually had a joint bank account and the bank account was money we had made from doing local commercials and we could only use it on trips to New York to audition.

"When I look back at that, a 16 and 14 year old, we were really young to be taking the bus by ourselves to New York and spending a day going to an audition - we were living adult lives as teenagers."

Ocean's Eleven voted best heist movie crew

The stars of Ocean's Eleven that includes George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon has been named the best heist movie crew in a new poll. In the survey conducted by MovieTickets.com, Ocean's Eleven beat actor Mark Wahlberg's The Italian Job to land the top spot, beat actor Mark Wahlberg's The Italian Job to land the top spot, reports contactmusic.com.

More than 12,200 film fans took part and the Ocean's Eleven cast won with 57 percent votes, The Italian Job got 14 percent votes.

The jewellery store robbers from Reservoir Dogs wrapped up the top three.

It’s a magic trick, really

Best known for his stellar performances in The Talented Mr Ripley, Goodwill Hunting and The Bourne series, Oscar-winner Matt Damon in his forthcoming film Invictus, brings real-life player Francois Pienaar to reel life on the big screen.

Directed by four-time Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood, the film tells the inspiring true story of how the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. The film presented by Warner Bros Pictures that also stars Morgan Freeman will hit theatres on February 26.

You’ve taken on a lot of physical action roles. How does that compare to playing a rugby captain now? Did your co-stars hold back from any of the tackles?
The biggest reason they held back was that it was Matt Damon’s stunt double in there most of the time! It’s really tough to choreograph rugby, it’s more uncontrolled. So, a lot of the stuff we shot was free play, which is just letting these guys go and nail each other, and hoping Clint captured that.

What did you identify as stumbling blocks?
Clint helped me out a lot. Francois (Pienaar) is a big guy and I’m an average size guy, so there were little tricks like putting the camera higher, or making me look a little larger in the foreground.

How does Clint Eastwood compare to other directors you’ve worked with?
There are people who just collect a bunch of footage and then edit it. You definitely feel more protected when a director is moving on when you’ve actually felt something happen and you know they’re watching intently. It gives you a real feeling of security because you know that you’re in very able hands and the director is watching the movie unfold.

What was meeting Nelson Mandela like?
When Morgan spoke of Nelson leaning over and commenting on his performance while they were watching the finished film, he also said, ‘The guy who’s playing Pienaar is fantastic!’ But we had a chance to meet him when we were in South Africa and it was wonderful.

How important are awards to a film like Invictus?
Well, awards are really the only reason to make movies (smiles). And that’s because a lot of people will look through the paper and ask, ‘Which five films have been nominated.’