Since bursting on the scene with “Good Will Hunting,” for which he and writing partner Ben Affleck won Oscars, Matt Damon has worked hard to avoid being typecast in his acting roles.
That explains why his credits include such varied fare as “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” “All the Pretty Horses,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Ocean’s 11” and “The Bourne Identity.”
All admirable work, but the 33-year-old star still had one noticeable gap in his resume: He had never done a crazy comedy.
That situation has been remedied now that Damon is starring in “Stuck on You,” the new film from the Farrelly brothers, the team responsible for comedic gems such as “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Shallow Hal.”
Taking its cue from the title, “Stuck on You,” opening Friday, stars Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins Bob and Walt, a pair of New England cooks who own and operate a small burger joint.
The pair work together, play together and literally go everywhere together. But when Walt decides to try his hand at acting, the pair relocate to Hollywood, where they meet sexy, aspiring starlet April (Eva Mendes) and finally hook up with Bob’s Internet girlfriend May (Wen Yann Shih).
Naive but full of enthusiasm, the pair also bump into Meryl Streep and then Cher who, in trying to break a contract for a new TV show, inadvertently gives them their break into show business.
Some people might be surprised that Damon would jump at the chance to do low-brow comedy after the big hit he had with the spy thriller “The Bourne Identity.”
“But that’s the point–to do completely different things,” he says. “I’d go crazy if I just did the same thing. And then I’d get locked into that, and I’d be one of those actors who aren’t allowed to do anything else. And so far, I’ve managed to keep it different and I love it when people go, ‘I would never have thought you’d do this.’ So once I read this and talked to the Farrellys about it, I got really excited.”
Bobby Farrelly reports that Damon and Kinnear were cast “because we felt they wouldn’t kill each other after being stuck together at the hip for several months.”
So how bad did it get?
“We never got on each other’s nerves,” Damon says, “and the only days we got testy were the ones where we had to do the full prosthetic rubber suit when we’re in swimming trunks. That was all around our chests and middle, and to do it we both had to stand there absolutely still for 12 hours while they did it. And I’d never stood stock still for 12 hours before, and it was really hard to do.”
Luckily, the film had its fun side for Damon, including the chance to work with Cher. “I had met her before but never spent much time together, and I was really surprised at how completely she dove into sending herself up and making fun of her image,” Damon says. “There aren’t many people that famous who’re cool enough to do that.
“And Meryl Streep was the same,” he continued. “It turned out she was a huge Farrelly brothers fan and had been dying to do one of their movies, so I felt lucky to be in one with both of them.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
