Matt Damon’s been in some massive movies over the course of his career, from Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan to the Bourne series and The Departed. At present, Damon headlines Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, The Odyssey, for which he’s received rave reviews. As great as his filmography is, not all of Damon’s flicks have been hits, though. In fact, as the actor recently revealed, his daughter roasted one of them in a hilarious way.
Damon promoted his blockbuster 2026 movie schedule entry during a chat with BBC Radio 1, and a seven-year-old listener asked an most important question. The young man wanted to know: What’s Damon’s worst movie? Damon was diplomatic at first, saying he once asked Clint Eastwood the same question about his films and that he responded by saying, he “loved each of them equally.” But, from there, Damon recalled how one of his four daughters jabbed a movie he shot over a decade ago:
There is a movie that I made with one of my favorite directors on planet earth. It was called The Great Wall and my daughter — I say this because my daughter refers to this movie as The Wall and we were at…. We had friends over for dinner, and she kept talking about ‘The Wall, The Wall, The Wall.’ And I finally was like, ‘Isabella, it’s called The Great Wall, and she goes, ‘Dad, there is nothing great about that movie.’
Now, that’s comedic timing! Zhang Yimou directed 2016’s The Great Wall, and it sees Damon playing a European mercenary, who teams up with Chinese soldiers to take on an alien force. Ultimately, the film was panned by critics and only grossed over $334 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $150 million. Needless to say, it didn’t make much of a dent — financially or culturally — and, apparently, Damon’s daughter wasn’t impressed, either.
Still, I love that Matt Damon can find the humor in his kid’s critique. To that point, this isn’t even the first time the actor has been roasted by one of his daughters. Just recently, one mercilessly roasted him and best friend Ben Affleck for their red carpet poses while they were promoting their film, The Rip (which is streamable with a Netflix subscription).
On top of that, it seems the Oscar winner’s kids have an interesting relationship with his work. He previously told a story about how his children only liked the movies of his that received bad reviews. And, funny enough, that inspired Daniel Radcliffe not to tell his son he played Harry Potter. Of course, Damon doesn’t take his children’s opinions personally. And, on the other hand, I can understand children of actors being somewhat in different to their parents’ work. Honestly, I’d argue that such critiques can keep those stars humble.
Considering how Damon’s kids feel about his work, though, I can’t help but wonder if any of them have seen The Odyssey yet. Nolan’s latest film has been critically acclaimed, with many calling it one of his best movies. Many have also already been predicting that Damon could be in major discussions amid the coming award season.
So I’d hope that at the very least Matt Damon’s kids gave him kudos for his performance as Odysseus in The Odyssey and for helping to get Christopher Nolan’s box office crown back. In all seriousness, though, I’d like to believe the girls are proud of their dad (even if The Great Wall is far from the best movie he’s done). Those who haven’t seen the historical action film and want to make up their own minds can stream it for free on Tubi now.
