Only in Hollywood : Matt finds a new bro in Heath

LOS ANGELES—Matt Damon may be heir to Tom Hanks’ title, Mr. Nice Guy, but he certainly also knows how to dish.

Flashing that golden boy smile, Matt said of his “The Brothers Grimm” co-star Heath Ledger’s black-and-white striped shirt: “He just came from a mime class.” Heath could only smile when told of Matt’s teasing at a room in the Four Seasons hotel. With his shaved head and the odd striped top, the Aussie actor and would-be dad was obviously not striving to keep the Mr. Heartthrob title today.

The two are cast as “The Brothers Grimm” in director Terry Gilliam’s wild, dark and visually sumptuous version of how these German brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, came to compile the classic fairy tales that we’ve all been reared on. But in Gilliam’s vision, these are not your Disney fairy tales. The following are excerpts of our separate interviews with Matt and Heath.

Whenever Terry Gilliam makes a film, there are almost always problems and controversies. How much of a nightmare was this to make?
For Heath and me, it was a fairy tale to work with Terry. We learned so much. Heath and I both want to direct, and it was like a master class in directing, watching Terry work. With his attention to detail, Terry is unlike anyone I’ve ever worked with. If there were problems, he cleared it up a little bit with the studio early on. The shooting part of it was great. It was exciting to go to work every day. The crew got very close because we were all over in Prague. On the weekends, we’d go bowling together. It was pretty much an idyllic working situation.

What did you find out about these two brothers?
We found that they are these wonderful scholars who were models of collaboration all through their lives till their deaths. They were guys who became very powerful and influential. Jacob was a very powerful politician in Germany. Basically, it was a time when the Germans were embarrassed about their culture and their folk tales in the face of the French, who were supposed to be so much more civilized. What the brothers Grimm did was unearth these folk tales and this oral history. They wrote it down. Suddenly, the Germans went, our history isn’t barbaric—it’s wonderful and beautiful. So they were very important figures.
All of that got thrown out when we made the movie. Because the characters that we play have nothing to do with the real brothers Grimm. Researching the brothers was interesting as a sidebar to the whole experience—it basically told us how much license we were taking, more than anything.

When we first met you, it was always Ben (Affleck, his childhood buddy) and Matt. Now it’s Ben and Jen (Jennifer Garner, Ben’s wife).
All I want is happiness for them. And to see Ben this happy is really great. I know he’s going to be a terrific father. So I’m excited for him more than anything.

So you don’t get to see Ben as much as you used to?
Because we’re working so much. But it’s been like that since “Good Will Hunting” (for which script they shared the 1997 Oscar Best Screenplay award). We’ve been all over the world working for eight years now. I think that in the back of our minds, we are hoping that there’ll be a time when things slow down enough for us to get to hang out a little more.

In this summer of Brangelina and Bennifer, how have you managed to be not part of the media/paparazzi circus?
It just worked out that way for me so far. It’s because I live a very normal life. I’m so boring that there’s just absolutely no story there. What helps is that my girlfriend (Luciana Barroso) is not famous. She’s not a celebrity. Just from my own experience and watching, things get magnified when two celebrities are involved. It’s not like one plus one makes two. It’s one plus one makes five. Suddenly there’s all this intensity and intrigue.
As long as I’m not doing anything like knocking out photographers, then there’s no story. It’s not really worth anybody’s time to follow me and take my picture. Because they’re going to see pictures of a guy getting in a car, going to work, coming home, going to sleep and going to the gym. Nothing too exciting. This is the perfect situation for me because I’m allowed to do the kind of work that I want to do and still have a life.

Did Ben invite you to his wedding?
No. He just called and let me know. They did it very fast. They wanted to keep it their own. They knew if word got out there would be helicopters and their moment would be hijacked from them. So they just did it very quickly. Everyone who’s close to them is happy that they did it that way.

Source:INQ7.Net