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Matt Damon Admits he knew ‘The Great Wall’ was a disaster while filming it

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Updated on August 2, 2021

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The 2016 film “The Great Wall” is largely regarded as a critical flop. Matt Damon, the film’s starring man, admits this.

Damon recently appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast to promote his new film Stillwater, and he was rather honest about his opinions on the movie. The actor referred to it as a “disaster” and he stated that he knew it would fail during production. Damon stated, “I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen. It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie.”

He claimed that when director Zhang began to make modifications only to suit Hollywood producers, all indications pointed south. Finally, the famous director and cinematographer had to abandon his original idea. Despite expecting that his film would be poorly received, Damon claimed he worked on it like a genuine professional actor.

“I came to consider that the definition of a professional actor; knowing you’re in a turkey and going, ‘OK, I’ve got four more months. It’s the up at dawn siege on Hamburger Hill. I am definitely going to die here, but I’m doing it,’” Damon later said about his experience on the film. “That’s as shitty as you can feel creatively, I think. I hope to never have that feeling again.”

Critics panned “The Great Wall” which has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 35% and a Metacritic score of 42. Clarence Tsui, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, summarized: “‘The Great Wall’ is easily the least interesting and involving blockbuster of the respective careers of both its director and star.”

The plot of The Great Wall revolves around a European mercenary fighter (Matt Damon) who is imprisoned by imperial Chinese soldiers within China’s Great Wall after arriving in quest of gunpowder. He finally joins forces with the Chinese to aid in the fight against an alien menace. The Great Wall cost a whopping $150 million to create, yet it only made $45.5 million domestically. Despite a $335 million worldwide revenue, the film was nevertheless deemed a flop, with losses estimated as high as $75 million when marketing expenditures were added into the production budget.

“The Great Wall” was also the target of casting criticism. Many critics faulted the film for reinforcing the white savior image, since Damon plays a European mercenary warrior who aids the Chinese in their struggle against alien invaders. When Damon read the script, he was thinking about race, saying, “I saw the movie as the exact same plot as ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ ‘Dances with Wolves,’ [and] ‘Avatar.’ It’s an outsider comes into a new culture, finds value in the culture, brings some skill from the outside that aids them in their fight against whatever and they’re all changed forever.”

The Great Wall sought to emulate the popularity of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The House of Flying Dragons, and other Chinese films in Hollywood. It certainly had a lot of promise in terms of concept: an epic adventure story, gorgeous visuals, acrobatic action scenes, and an all-star ensemble. Sadly, despite all of these considerations, the film failed to deliver. Instead, it was met with scathing criticism for its ill-conceived narrative, hasty CGI effects, and thin plot.

According to Damon, even one of his daughters is aware of the film’s flaws.

As the Oscar winner put it, “Whenever she talks about the movie, she calls it ‘The Wall.’ And I’m like, come on, it’s called ‘The Great Wall.’ And she’s like, ‘Dad, there’s nothing great about that movie.’”