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Robin Williams Helped Matt Damon Get Cast In Saving Private Ryan
Matt Damon reveals that Robin Williams helped him get cast in Saving Private Ryan. The American actor starred alongside the legendary comedian in Good Will Hunting in 1997, kickstarting the former's career and resulting in both winning Academy Awards. He then played the titular Private Ryan in the acclaimed WWII film from director Steven Spielberg in 1998.
Saving Private Ryan, widely considered one of the greatest war films ever made, tells the story of Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his men, who during the Invasion of Normandy are ordered to search for and send home Private James Francis Ryan (Damon), the only of four enlisted brothers still living. While Damon appears only in the film's final act, his role is crucial to the story, and he earned praise for his performance. Good Will Hunting may have been his launchpad, but Saving Private Ryan was certainly an important, early stepping stone in his career, helping him become one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
According to a recent interview with GQ, Damon would never have gotten the part in Spielberg's film if not for Williams. When the director happened to be in Boston while the Good Will Hunting cast was rehearsing, Williams took Damon and Ben Affleck to meet Spielberg, knowing it could only help their careers. Though he had already auditioned for Saving Private Ryan and not been cast, meeting Damon in person helped Spielberg see that he was right for the part:
Robin took Ben and me to meet Steven [Spielberg] because he knew it was never a bad thing to meet the greatest filmmaker of all time and how much we’d appreciate that. I had put myself on tape and I had read for Private Ryan and I hadn’t been cast. He met me in person and said ‘I think I know you from somewhere,’ and I said ‘Well I did this movie called Courage Under Fire,’ and he goes ‘That’s the one, you know it’s funny, I said to my wife that’s the exact type of person I want to play Private Ryan, but he’s too thin.’ Because I’d lost 40 pounds, I was playing a heroin addict in Courage Under Fire. And so it was only because Robin introduced me to him that he went ‘Oh OK, no you’re the kind of guy I’m looking for for that job.
Elsewhere in the interview, Damon describes the process of writing Good Will Hunting with Affleck, and says they were inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs to attract a big name to their film. Because they both wanted to act in it, they wrote the part of Will's therapist to be "really open-ended," so that they could adapt to whoever responded to the script. He also talks about how the Good Will Hunting cast watched the Oscars together while filming, only to then end up sitting in the front row the following year.
In addition to being hilarious and talented, Williams had a reputation for kindness, and this story about Saving Private Ryan is only the latest example of how he helped his fellow actors. Damon attributes much of his career to Williams, which seems fitting, given that Damon wrote what became one of his defining roles in Good Will Hunting. Though fans continue to miss his presence since his death in 2014, his impact on the entertainment industry has clearly not yet run its course.
