Matt Damon Was Told He Was Too Old to Play Captain Kirk in ‘Star Trek’
Matt Damon was once rumored to be attached to J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek project. The actor confirmed there was some truth to the rumors, but he wasn’t the appropriate age for the role.
Matt Damon called J.J. Abrams about his possible ‘Star Trek’ role
Abrams decided to reboot the Star Trek franchise for the big screen, and take it in a fresh direction. For Abrams, casting the iconic Captain Kirk was one of the toughest challenges in the feature. Especially when considering veteran star William Shatner’s own timeless performance in the role.
“Because William Shatner brought a number of things to that role,” Abrams once said according to Trek Movie. “He was incredibly cocky. He was incredibly smart – his wit was sharp. He had a great sense of humor. He was everything in this package. He didn’t have anything to hide behind, no pointy ears. … It was all about his attitude. I knew I didn’t want to have them impersonating the original actors, and have them do their own thing playing these characters.”
For the longest time, Damon was rumored to be cast in the project as the new Kirk. In a resurfaced interview with IGN, Damon corroborated the rumors, but confided Abrams wouldn’t bring him on board the Enterprise.
“I finally called J.J. Abrams because I was like, ‘Dude, what is going on?’ He was like, ‘You’re way too f***ing old! You’re like 15 years too old to play Captain Kirk in this movie,’” Damon said.
Damon provided a few small details about Abrams’ plans for the movie, and explained why 36 was too old for Kirk.
“It’s basically when James T. Kirk gets out of the academy, so they’re gonna need a 25-year-old guy. I’m 36,” Damon said.
J.J. Abrams clarified that Matt Damon wasn’t wanted for James T. Kirk
Abrams recently reflected on Damon’s involvement in his Star Trek franchise. It turns out that Abrams never had The Bourne Identity star in mind to play Captain Kirk after all. Instead, he was thinking of another Kirk for Damon. In the first film, Captain Kirk’s father, George Kirk, makes a brief appearance in the movie. If events went a certain way, fans would’ve seen Damon as the character.
“I went to Damon for the role of Kirk’s father, and he declined in the most gracious and understandable and logical of reasons,” Abrams said in a 2009 interview with MTV News.
Chris Hemsworth ended up in the role as George Kirk, and his small screen time was actually a bit of a breakthrough role for the actor. In hindsight, Abrams felt Hemsworth might have worked better than Damon because of the latter’s star-power.
“We lucked out with Chris Hemsworth, and he did a great job,” Abrams said. “Maybe it would have been distracting to have someone as massively famous as Matt Damon in that role. … The decision was made very early on to have actors who were not necessarily the most famous but the most right for the role.”
Why J.J. Abrams felt he found his perfect Captain Kirk with Chris Pine
Abrams finally found the actor capable of filling Captain Kirk’s shoes in Chris Pine. Not only was Pine the right age at the time, he had all the external and internal attributes needed for the role.
“He had this incredible confidence, that was not obnoxious. He was great looking, but not ‘oh come one, give me a break.’ He just had all of these – he is so smart, as an actor and a guy – he asks great questions. He was wonderful collaborator,” Abrams said.
For the director, finding Pine was like finding an “unknown” movie star. Although, ironically, Pine felt he left the exact opposite impression when he auditioned.
“I thought it was just about the worst audition I could’ve given,” Pine once said according to Totally Dublin. “I came in during the spring of ’07. I was doing a play at the time and my energy was focused elsewhere. I was asked to talk about photons and torpedoes and-well, anyway, I just felt the audition went down the drain.”
Pine would go on to lead Abrams’ entire Star Trek trilogy, and to this day still wants to make more movies set in the universe.
