Matt Damon offered some guidance to his fellow “Oppenheimer” actor Josh Hartnett, though it seems it came a bit too late.
Hartnett was on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” this week, chuckling at Damon’s “not-so-helpful” advice.
“He provided me with a lot of valuable advice,” Hartnett remarked. “But one piece stood out as particularly unhelpful: He advised me against gaining the weight I had already put on for the role.”
He elaborated, “I added around 30 pounds for the part, and he kept saying, ‘You’re never going to lose that weight again, man. Don’t put on weight over 40. You’ll spend the rest of your life trying to shed that weight, and it won’t come off because your body will want to revert to that size. You’re just going to keep expanding back out to that weight, and when you try to lose it, it’s just going to return.’ He kept repeating this throughout the filming process.”
Josh Hartnett humorously noted that Matt Damon offered him very “unhelpful” advice regarding gaining weight for his “Oppenheimer” role. (Getty Images)
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In the movie, Hartnett, now 46, portrayed Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel laureate physicist who collaborated with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Damon, aged 53, took on the role of Lt. General Leslie Groves, who oversaw the Manhattan Project.
“I told him, ‘Thanks, Matt. Appreciate you telling me this now. I’ve already gained it,'” Hartnett joked. “And now I hardly eat anymore.”
Hartnett portrayed Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel-winning physicist who collaborated with J. Robert Oppenheimer in the film. (Melinda Sue Gordon / © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection Everett Collection – 2023)
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Hartnett’s part is relatively minor in “Oppenheimer,” and he humorously commented on the lack of pressure during awards season while backing the film.
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“It’s quite enjoyable when you’re not nominated for any awards,” he said. “I can just relax with a few drinks while watching others give their speeches and occasionally make fools of themselves, which is fantastic.”
Hartnett quipped that he felt no pressure during “Oppenheimer’s” wave of awards. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Fallon noted that “Oppenheimer” won Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, and Hartnett mentioned that he got to go on stage during the celebration, adding, “If you check out the pictures on the cover of The New York Times and everything, you’ll see I was just out of the frame where they cropped it. They actually included one of the ushers instead of me.”
