MATT DAMON REVEALS THE ONE FOOD HE WILL NEVER EAT (BUT HIS WIFE LOVES)
First came Will Hunting, then came Jason Bourne… and next, Matt Damon is set to star as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. But before he heads into Greek epic territory, Damon showcased a different kind of hidden talent as rapper The Nomad to help kick off his nonprofit Water.org’s new Get Blue Initiative.
Get Blue was created to turn everyday actions like shopping, sharing, and donating into safe water for those who need it most. Through partnerships with companies including Starbucks, Amazon, Ecolab, and Gap, consumers can help pay it forward by supporting limited-time collaborations. But more on that later.
Clean water isn’t the only thing Damon has strong opinions about. When asked which fast food chain has the all-time best French fries—a divisive topic, I know–he didn’t hesitate. “I love In-N-Out, but they don’t have the best fries. I would have to default to the McDonald’s fries,” he told me. They were something he enjoyed growing up.
And while his taste has certainly evolved since childhood, there’s still one food he just can’t stomach. “My wife loves sea urchin,” he shared. “I think that’s a real hit or miss for people. If people eat sushi and then they have uni on the menu, I just can’t even,” he said of the popular delicacy. “You gotta try it once, and you will know if it’s for you or not. She loves it, and I don’t.”
It’s too bad, because it wouldn’t interfere with his current eating regimen. Damon adopted a gluten-free diet ahead of filming for The Odyssey and hasn’t looked back. “I am still doing a gluten-free diet, which means I haven't had bread in two years,” he told me.
When asked what he misses most, his answer was definitive: bread. “Well, actually, it's bread, pasta, and beer, because I love beer, and I can't have it anymore,” he clarified.
As fun as it was to chat about French fries and sushi, that was not actually why we sat down. Circling back to Water.org and why the cause is such a passion of his, Damon explained that lack of safe water kills a million kids a year.
“It's a problem we kind of solved for ourselves a century ago, but for two billion people, it's the first thing they think about every day when they wake up, and it's a massive issue,” he says. “If you don't have that access, it can be a death sentence, this totally preventable, inexcusable death.”
He also pointed to the bigger picture impact that access to water has on people’s lives. “Then there's this other issue of people's human ambition to live to their full potential and to be their true selves and contribute to their communities as best they can, and [lack of water] completely stifles that,” he continued.
That reality is what pushed him to get more involved. “Lacking access just completely changes the outcome of one's life, and so that realization just really hit me, and that's when I got involved in trying to figure out how I could try to maximize my impact in trying to help solve that,” Damon told me. In his films, Damon is often the one being rescued, but in real life, he is now the one doing the rescuing. I call that poetic.
If you want to support the initiative, there are a few ways to do it through Get Blue:
- Shop Gap’s limited-edition Get Blue Collection, with $5 from each purchase going to Water.org.
- Shop Starbucks’ limited-edition drinks starting next week, with 25 cents from every purchase benefiting the organization.
- Through Alexa+, users can say, “Alexa, donate to Get Blue,” and Amazon will contribute $5 to Water.org.
- Listening to Amazon Music’s REDISCOVER playlist will trigger a $1 donation.
- Purchases made through Amazon’s Get Blue storefront will also send a portion back to the cause.
