Matt Damon’s best performance has been debated by fans for ages, and Ridley Scott couldn’t care any less!

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We saw Matt Damon in the role of an astronaut stranded on a far-off planet in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 epic sci-fi film Interstellar. The actor played the role of a lone astronaut on Mars in Ridley Scott’s film The Martian. So it is essentially the same role but a different film, right?

In fact, Damon himself was worried that his role in Interstellar would eclipse his efforts in The Martian. What he received in return, though, was a blunt response that would have made any Hollywood heavyweight gag. When an actor plays the same role repeatedly, it is a common joke and a source of memes. The Air actor knew this so well and when he voiced his apprehension about playing a somewhat similar role again in The Martian, director Ridley Scott ignored it and persuaded Damon to play the part.

Matt Damon in Interstellar

Matt Damon Outlined How The Martian Greatly Differs From Interstellar

Matt Damon played Dr. Mann in Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar, a film in which he was abandoned in space and his mental state spiraled out of control. Meanwhile, in The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, Damon assumed the role of astronaut Mark Watney, who was stranded on Mars and fighting for survival. Adding to the comparison-baiting appeal, Jessica Chastain starred in both movies. However, Damon wants you to understand that these are very different films.

Though there are some similarities, people who did not enjoy Interstellar might find solace in the fact that The Martian was very different from that film. Damon, who talked with Yahoo!, claimed that while he was initially wary as well, Scott was highly convincing:

“I went in to meet [Ridley Scott], then I signed on really quickly. I went in and I said, I really love this script, but my only hesitation is I’ve just done ‘Interstellar’, in which I played a dude stranded on a planet, it might be weird if, after taking a year and a half off, I played another dude stranded on a planet..”

Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s The Martian

Read more: “We were unemployed broke guys”: Good Will Hunting Almost Became the Reason Why Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Never Wrote a Movie Script Together

Damon went on to give a more detailed breakdown of how Interstellar and The Martian differed:

“One of the biggest differences is it’s primarily me on my own for a lot of it. That’s the big challenge. It has all the bells and whistles of NASA and the b-side of the story, the rest of the world trying to get this guy back. But the other half of the movie is me and Ridley on Mars, so that part’s different. You start there, there’s that mystery-what happened, how did he get left there? The mission part is the b-side, trying to figure out how to get back. So, structurally it’s different to [anything] that’s ever been done.”

Both films have made an effort to uphold scientific accuracy, but they take different approaches. With favorable reviews from critics and a global box office gross of over $681 million ($703 million after re-releases), Interstellar is the tenth highest-grossing movie of 2014.

Matt Damon in Interstellar

The Martian became Scott’s highest-grossing movie to date and the tenth-highest-grossing movie of 2015 after earning favorable reviews and grossing over $630 million globally.

How Was Matt Damon’s Serious Concern Ignored by Ridley Scott?

Matt Damon played a kind of similar role in The Martian and Interstellar. Thus, he confided in Ridley Scott that he was worried he would use the same cliché in the 2015 science fiction film. He disclosed in a GQ interview:

“That was the first thing I said to Ridley [Scott]…Interstellar had not yet come out and it was not a big part, but I am a guy alone on a planet and I don’t know if I should follow it up with a guy who is alone on a planet. Ridley goes, ‘Nobody gives a  f**k about that’. I’m glad he said that to me because I took the leap…”

The Martian (2015)

Even though each movie stands alone as a masterpiece, what sets them apart from one another are the different ways they address themes such as humanity, isolation, scientific accuracy, and the future of humanity.

We will next see Damon as Senator Channel in Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, which is slated for release on February 23, 2024.

You can watch The Martian on TNT, while Interstellar is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.