Would you consider doing another franchise character?
”I'm trying to only do franchises. That's my new thing. In fact,
the guys who wrote Ocean's Thirteen wrote the movie Rounders and I said
to them…because Rounders was a bomb when it came out, but now it's done
really well on video. And I said, ‘You guys are writing the wrong sequel.
We should be doing Rounders 2!’ (Laughing) So no, I'm open to it.
I knew Ludlum had written three books, but I signed up for one and they were okay with that. And then when I signed up for the second one, I didn't sign up for the third. I only signed up for one again because I wanted to make sure that it went well and I still liked doing it. And so I've done it. And the Ocean's movies have just... You know, Steven [Soderbergh] calls and goes, ‘We're doing another one,’ and I go, ‘Okay, I'm in.’ But there was never a kind of an eye to being, for me, for either of them being franchises. I don't think that way. And so I'm open to any good movie. If I enjoy the experience and I love the people I'm working with and I feel like there's a chance to make a good movie, I'll make it if it's a sequel or if it's not.”
At the end of the day, what do you want to be
known for?
”The career that I think Ben [Affleck] and I look at... Well,
Clooney's definitely doing it right now, and Clint Eastwood. Those are the careers where they're acting, they're writing, they're directing, and they're doing it on their terms. I mean, I think that's the biggest. I love making movies, and I love everything about it. I love writing and
I love acting, and I really want to direct. I've been taking this last 10 years to really carefully study these directors that I've been working with. I've worked with a lot of really good ones at this point. I feel like I'm ready to do it. And that, to me, would be great to have a long career.
It's so hard to have a long career in this business. I mean, you guys see people just... I mean, I'm still here after 10 years, and we're all probably a little amazed by that. (Laughing) But yeah, so at this point, I just want to just be smart about the work that I'm doing and try to have integrity about the choices I make, and that's it.”
What's your update on fatherhood?
”Being a dad is still great. It's been just amazing. I mean, these
stages just go by at such a [fast rate]. .I mean, it's like it's incredibly fast, you
know? The little discoveries every day, so much is happening, so much
changes in the first year. She's walking around now. She's
13 months old, so it's just amazing. It happens at warp speed. I see why
people, when parents see little babies, they get that thing. They go, ‘I
want another one,’ because the stages all just fly past. And if you're
with her every day, which I'm lucky enough to be...You know, it's only if
you're taking pictures or it's only if people you haven't seen for a
couple months, that you even realize. It's happening
in front of you and you don't even see it.”
Have you figured her out yet?
”Well, I try to figure out what it is... I mean, right now, she kind
of sounds like a crow. She kind of goes like [makes crow sound twice].
Like that, and points at things. This morning, like she pointed at the
ceiling, and there was nothing on the ceiling. And she just went [makes
crow sound] like that. And I was like, ‘Well, that's the ceiling.’ And she
went [makes silly laugh]. And I was like, ‘I don't know what's funny about
that.’ So I'm trying to figure out what's going on in her head. Like
sometimes, you know, sometimes she goes [makes crow sound] and you go, ‘Oh,
you want some milk?’ She goes [makes silly laugh]. And you go, ‘All
right, she was thirsty. That's good, she communicated.’ But then sometimes
she just has these things that I just have no idea what she's thinking. So
I'm working on that.”
SPOILER ALERT
You’ve said you’ll never play Jason Bourne again. Is that still how you feel?
“I made that comment at Cannes when we were about nine months into shooting the movie (laughing). I just went, ‘I’m never doing this again.’ But I think in terms of another one, the story of this guy’s search for his identity is over, because he’s got all the answers, so there’s no way we can trot out the same character. So much of what makes him interesting is that internal struggle that was happening for him: am I a good guy, am I a bad guy, what is the secret behind my identity, what am I blocking out, why am I remembering these disturbing images? So all of that internal propulsive mechanism that drives the character is not there.
If there was to be another one, then it would have to be a complete reconfiguration, you know, where do you go from there? For me I kind of feel like the story that we set out to tell is has now been told. I love the character and if Paul Greengrass calls me in 10 years and says, ‘Now we can do it because it’s been 10 years and I have a way to bring him back,’ then there’s a world in which I can go, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ We could get the band back together if there was a great idea behind it. But in terms of now and this story, that part – the story’s been told.
If we came out with a fourth one, suddenly I got bonked on the head, you guys would be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Actually, I was talking to a journalist yesterday who suggested that we could do fourth one about Bourne losing his keys. And we could do for the entire movie, ‘Where are my keys?’ And that kind of illustrates how out of story we are at this point in terms of what was good about these first three films.”
