Matt Damon embracing being locked down in Ireland is a reminder that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade
Aside from reports of exotic animals turning up in unexpected places and making themselves at home — although this is a bit like that too — my favourite lockdown story is that of Matt Damon, the Oscar-winning Hollywood superstar. Damon was supposed to be filming a Ridley Scott movie called The Last Duel in Ireland, and had decamped with his wife and three children to Dalkey, an affluent, artsy seaside suburb of south Dublin, for the duration. They arrived in March and were just settling in when everything shut down. Did he throw a huge wobbler and demand that a private jet return them all to Los Angeles immediately? He did not.
Instead, Damon has fully embraced the situation. He potters about locally, having a lovely time. He shoots the socially distanced breeze with strangers. He is friendly and approachable. Recently a resident snapped him walking back from a dip in Dublin Bay, carrying his wet swimming things in a plastic bag from the shop SuperValu. Unshaven and scruffy-looking, he grinned for the photographer, a lady called Siobhan Berry. He has also phoned in to the local radio station, Spin 1038, for a chat. One of the hosts, Nathan O’Reilly, joked that it felt like a dream: “That in a few seconds I’m going to wake up naked with drool on my pillow.”
Damon was similarly astounded. “It feels like a fairy tale … This is one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been,” he said when asked about his situation, adding: “Obviously what’s going on in the world is horrible, but I’ve got my whole family, I’m with my kids and we have teachers with us because we were planning on missing school for about eight weeks. We’ve got what nobody else has, which is live human beings teaching our kids, so we feel guilty. We’ve got this set-up in this incredible place. It’s absolutely gorgeous.”
Ireland, needless to say, is equally delighted. Locals have become protective of him, shooing away journalists. There are even reports that the actor has been awarded the ultimate honorific and is now known as Matt O’Damon. As if all this weren’t excellent enough, back in 2011 Damon played a sort of everyman figure in the film Contagion, about a bat-originated global pandemic that sees governments scrabbling for a vaccine, which for obvious reasons is enjoying a prodigious second wind. Damon’s character is the one who is ordinary, human, shell-shocked, frightened, and who does little kindnesses for what remains of his family.
Ireland is a wonderful place, which helps, and I’m sure Damon isn’t staying in a shed. But I just love the good-temperedness of this story. It’s a superstar version of “when life gives you lemons”, and Damon is making the best lemonade ever, admittedly with superior lemons, but still. This story resonates not just because of the unfamiliar thrill of seeing a genuine A-lister behave like a really likeable human being, but also because it says something worthwhile — important, even — about community, family, adaptability and living in the moment, which is really all that any of us can do at this time.
Nor does Damon sound as though he’s in any particular hurry to get back to the States and to his normal life. He told the radio show he was “a little worried … We don’t have adequate testing, so there’s going to be another surge, it looks like, back home.” For now, he’s sitting tight, like the rest of us, and finding every conceivable silver lining. He could be moaning about the difficulties of making a movie for the foreseeable future; he could be wringing his hands about the effect of this on his career. Instead he is grateful. He’s sticking his trunks in a carrier bag and going for a swim. It works as a metaphor too. By the way, Contagion ends well. Eventually. @indiaknight
