Matt Damon ‘Fell Into a Depression’ While Filming a Movie He Knew Was a ‘Losing Effort’: ‘What Have I Done?’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Matt Damon revealed on “Jake’s Takes” while promoting “Oppenheimer” that he once “fell into a depression” halfway through shooting a movie that wasn’t panning out how he hoped it would when he accepted the gig. “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,” Damon said. “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 like, what have I done?” “She just said, ‘We’re here now’,” Damon continued. “You know, and it was like…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.

And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you’re a pro, and she really helped me with that.” Damon did not name the movie in which he fell into a depression, but he has openly spoken out in the past about acting in films he knew were heading for disaster.

One such movie was “The Great Wall,” Zhang Yimou’s poorly-reviewed 2016 monster movie that generated controversy for its white savior narrative.

Damon played a European mercenary who is forced to team up with imperial Chinese forces to fend off an alien threat. The film didn’t make it past the $50 million mark in the U.S.