There’s only one Matt Damon.
Yes, it’s true — even if Jesse Plemons sometimes has people doing a double take.
Plemons, who stars in the upcoming movie “Kinds of Kindness,” says he is often mistaken for Damon.
During Plemons’ June 20 appearance on TODAY with his “Kinds of Kindness” co-star Emma Stone, Craig Melvin said his wife, Lindsay Czarniak, thought Plemons was Damon while they screened the film.
“Still not Matt Damon,” Plemons said, while confirming that he has been confused for him before.
“Yeah, for a little while now, which there are worse things to be called, for sure,” he said. “It’s definitely flattering, but, yeah, throughout the course of my career I’ve had various Matt Damon-associated nicknames and such.”
Plemons had some fun with the idea that he’s Damon’s doppelgänger while appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” earlier this month. When Kimmel introduced Plemons, the actor didn’t walk onto the stage, with viewers and the audience seeing that Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo, locked him in a cell, thinking he was the “Oppenheimer” star, who is Kimmel’s nemesis in a long-running fake feud.
“I told you, I’m not Matt Damon,” Plemons said before Kimmel assured him it’s not Damon.
Guillermo eventually freed him from the cell when he correctly passed the “Matt Damon test” and knew what two plus two equals.
“How do you like them apples?” Plemons said as he walked out of the cell, alluding to one of Damon’s famous lines in “Good Will Hunting.”
Once he sat down with Kimmel, Plemons said the resemblance has caused some issues.
“It has somewhat been haunting me for a little while,” he said. “There was an occasion at the Toronto Film Festival maybe 10 years ago or so where I was stepping into an elevator, and everyone at festivals, they’re kind of looking around to see who they can spot. And this woman asked me, she’s like, ‘Are you Matt Damon?’ I said, ‘No, I’m sorry, I’m not.’ And she looked at me as if: ‘Wow, Matt Damon is a liar and an (expletive).’ And I felt bad.”
When asked if he thinks they do look alike, Plemons said he doesn’t, but one of his relatives had a hunch he would one day grow to look like the Oscar winner.
“When I was younger, my aunt watched ‘Good Will Hunting’ and, for some reason, called, and told my mom, ‘This is what Jesse’s going to look like when he gets older,’” he said.
Interestingly, early in his career Plemons played a younger version of Damon’s character in the 2000 movie “All the Pretty Horses.” Plemons said he had been told he’d be in the first scene of the film, but that didn’t actually happen.
“Maybe it was him,” Plemons said about whether Damon was responsible for cutting him.
