Matt Damon 'totally fine' with younger actor taking over Jason Bourne
Matt Damon says he's "totally fine" with a younger actor taking over the role of Jason Bourne after he's done with the action franchise.
Speaking on a promotional tour in Seoul, South Korea, Damon, who returns for the fifth installment titled Jason Bourne that's released this summer, said he was "definitely going to be replaced some day by some new young Jason Bourne. That happens to everybody and they reboot these things, and that's totally fine."
Damon added: "The only control I can exercise is over the ones that I'm part of. I'm the curator of them as long as I'm involved and that's why I battled so hard to make sure that we got the same creative people [including director Paul Greengrass] to get involved in this one."
Fourteen years since the first film in the franchise, Damon said he was "very excited" to be playing Bourne again, a character that "had a huge impact on my life and career."
See photos of Matt Damon through the years:
See More: 'Jason Bourne' Trailer
He said, however, it wasn't easy to keep up with action sequences at his age. "It's difficult when you're 45 compared to when you're 29, but you still have to run as fast as you can. That part was a challenge but to get to revisit the people was wonderful. But I said, let's smell the roses as we say and appreciate that we get to be here together, and make sure we have fun [especially because it was so tense on the set for the other films]."
The star emphasized, however, that there was also something new fans can look forward to.
"You'll see what you've seen before [in the upcoming film] and will recognize it as a Jason Bourne movie but it feels new and of the world we're living in today," he said, such as a massive car chase scene that left 170 vehicles getting towed in front of the Bellagio Hotel fountains on Las Vegas Boulevard. "It's where we ended Ocean's Eleven," he said. "It's bigger than anything we've done but it has this same kind of visceral experience that these Bourne car chases have been known for. Hopefully it's the best one yet."
He added that moviegoers will be able to feel the vibe of "new energy and new people between Vincent Cassel, Tommy Lee Jones and the best upcoming actress in the world, Alicia Vikander." Among co-stars, the Oscar-winning Vikander accompanied the Asia tour that kicks off in Korea.
Vikander said it was an incredibly "emotional" coming back to South Korea, where she had her first international film festival experience in Busan with her first feature film Pure in 2010. "It was a whirlwind moment coming here and I hadn't been to Cannes so the red carpet was mind-blowing at [the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)]. To be back here, it both feels that a lot of time has passed and that it has gone by in a second," she said about winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in The Danish Girl since then.
Jason Bourne will be released in Korea two days ahead of the rest of the world on July 27 via UPI Korea. Shortly after on Aug. 18, another one of Damon's iconic films, Good Will Hunting, will be re-released in Korean theaters in a digitally re-mastered format in time for its 20th anniversary.
RELATED: Watch the trailer for Matt Damon's newest venture with Ben Affleck:
