Sue's Private Celebrity Goss: Matt Damon Gets Tongue-Tied By 'True Grit,' Bieber Fever

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Matt Damon Gets Tongue-Tied By 'True Grit,' Bieber Fever

The Oscar-winning actor gamely shows off his character's interesting manner of speech for MTV News.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Matt Damon
Photo: MTV News

Matt Damon. Actor, writer, Oscar winner. Generally perceived in and around Hollywood to be a really nice guy. As such, when MTV News caught up with Damon as he promoted "True Grit," we hoped he would respond positively to our request for him to conduct the interview either talking in the voice of his "Grit" character, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, or using his dead-on Matthew McConaughey impression.

"I would do [LaBoeuf's accent] if anyone had a ponytail [holder]," he said, and then asked the behind-the-scenes ladies in the room if he could borrow one. Amazingly enough, someone did have one at the time and quickly handed it to Damon, who tied it around his tongue.

Not to spoil the film, but in "True Grit," Damon's character suffers a particular misfortune along the way that leads to him losing part of his tongue, adding a lisp to his Texas twang.

"Ask me anything you like," he said with a distinct lisp, after affixing the band to his tongue.

Then it was our turn to try to maintain a straight face long enough to ask Damon why he wanted to be in this particular film.

"Well, I'd been looking to work with [directors] Joel and Ethan [Cohen] for a long time," he said, trying not to laugh himself. Film-related questions aside for a moment, we had to ask him, does that hurt?

"Yeah," Damon admitted, at which point we told him he should take off the band. "No, no, I'm going to do the whole interview like this," he insisted.

We then brought up "Grit" star Hailee Steinfeld, who's been getting rave reviews and plenty of awards consideration for her breakthrough performance, and asked what it felt like to be out-witted by a young girl.

"I have four girls in my house, I get out-witted by them every day," Damon quipped — still talking with the band.

Has his home been affected by Bieber fever yet?

"No," Damon said. "We've mercifully avoided Bieber fever."

There's still time: His daughters are ages 11, 4, 2 and 3 months.

Check out everything we've got on "True Grit."

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