Matt Damon Covers Parade Magazine December 2011

Matt Damon covers the new issue of Parade magazine, out this Sunday, December 11. Scroll down for interview snippets.

On working with the animals in We Bought a Zoo: "Have you ever looked at a lion up close? Their eyes are amazing. They're ancient--that's really the only way to describe them.
  
"They needed the lion to look toward [co-star] JB Smoove and me, standing outside the gate.But we were the least interesting thing around, and [the crew] was screaming at the lion to look at us. Then they walked a zebra through these trees and high grass about 100 yards behind us. And what was incredible was, this lion--which was third-generation domestic; its grandfather was born into captivity, and its father, and him — but when this lion saw the zebra, everything changed. He turned into a hunter. We were between him and the zebra, and to see that power, you're instantly aware, 'I'm in the middle of a food chain.' It's a million years of biology."

On paparazzi hounding his famous friends: "Brad Pitt threw a cheeseburger at somebody. The guy had followed him to the drive-thru and Brad was like, ‘Can I just eat my cheeseburger?’ … They both looked at each other in total shock for a long moment. Neither of them could believe that it happened, you know? And then the guy went to raise his camera, and Brad sped off. So he did not get the picture. Brad left that experience feeling like, ‘Well, I didn’t get to eat my cheeseburger. I really wanted it.’”

 On a star's short shelf life: "I was down by NYU [New York University] getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and there were a bunch of college-age students working there. The girl at the counter said, 'Oh, wow, I just loved you in The Departed.' I said, 'Thanks a lot.' And she goes, 'I know, I know, it was a long time ago.' And I thought, well, there you go. Because to her, if she's 19, it probably came out when she was 13 or 14, so it feels like a generation ago. Every five years there's a new crop [of moviegoers], and they have no idea who you are. If your identity is somehow tied to that, you're in deep trouble. Because if it's not happening now, it's going to happen at some point."

On staying away from shirtless scenes: “On the first Bourne movie, I was in the best shape of my life, and we purposely never did a shot of me with my shirt off. There’s one scene where [Bourne’s lover] is pulling the shirt over my head, but what the camera sees are the two bullet holes in my back. It’s not gratuitous; there’s a point to it. I try to stay away from the beefcake shots.”

On raising four daughter ranging in age from 13 months to 13 years: “The only way I can describe it – it sounds stupid, but – at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full; it’s just full all the time.”

Courtesy of Parade