“I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor,” Damon said of wife Luciana Barroso.
Matt Damon is crediting his longtime love Luciana Barroso for helping get him through a low time in his career.
The Oppenheimer actor, 52, explained of his experience in a recent interview with Jake’s Takes, “Without naming any particular movies, sometimes you find yourself in a movie that you know, perhaps, might not be what you had hoped it would be, and you’re still making it.”
“And I remember halfway through production and you’ve still got months to go and you’ve taken your family somewhere, you know, and you’ve inconvenienced them, and I remember my wife pulling me up because I fell into a depression about it — like, ‘What have I done?’ ” he added.
Damon recalled his wife of 18 years telling him simply, ” ‘We’re here now,’ ” which put the work in perspective for him.
“I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor. And what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort,” he said. “If you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro. And she really helped me with that.”
Damon and Barroso, who wed in 2005, hit a big milestone earlier this year as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of their first meeting.
Their love story began when Damon visited the bar Barroso, 46, used to work at in 2003 — and sparks instantly flew.
The couple tied the knot two years later in a private ceremony in New York City. They now share daughters Isabella, 16, Gia, 14, and Stella, 12. Barroso also has a daughter named Alexia, 24, from a previous relationship.
In an interview with Vogue Australia back in 2018, Barroso recalled the moment she first met her husband.
“We definitely had a connection right away; it was so easy to talk to each other. We were very comfortable [with each other], and by the end of the night, he invited me to go out with his friends,” she told the outlet. “But I was like, ‘I can’t, I have a 4-year-old daughter, I’m not going anywhere’ … and that was one of the things he loved, that I had a daughter.”
Barroso continued, “He said, ‘I love that you’re a mom and that’s your priority.’ Some guys might have been different, they might think it’s complicated, but for him it wasn’t.”
Damon and his wife recently vacationed at the Greek hotspot of Mykonos, and were even joined by some of their famous pals: Chris and Liam Hemsworth.
In one set of photos, the Air actor appeared to be enjoying his vacation to the fullest as he danced like a cowboy and made lasso movements toward his wife as the Hemsworth brothers looked on and laughed.
Days later, Damon and his wife had a PDA-filled day during an outing at Paraga Beach, where the actor was seen kissing Barroso’s stomach as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
This past Tuesday, Damon was joined by three of the couple’s four daughters — Stella, Gia and Alexia — at the Oppenheimer premiere in Paris.