Matt Damon Explains How He ‘Really’ Tries to Be Present for His Kids After Years in Hollywood

Matt Damon is taking this time to be present for his daughters after years of grinding in Hollywood.

“I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now,” Damon, 55, said of his career during a recent interview with GQ. “It’s hard for me to do that. I think maybe that has to do with my own nature. It also has to do with this career where you’re always trying to figure out what’s ahead because it’s such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one.”

He added, “Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I’d like.”

The actor shares three daughters — Isabella, 19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15 — with wife Luciana Damon. He also parents her daughter, Alexia, 26, from a previous marriage.

While reflecting on his success, Matt explained that he feels “less of that kind of young person’s engine of needing to prove something” at this point in his career. Now, he’s “accepting work and doing it on your terms.”

This is what he did with The Odyssey — although it was a behemoth of a project. Not only did the Christopher Nolan epic — which hits theaters in July — offer him a chance to look back at his career, but he was also able to focus on the important parts of life, like family.

Matt has discussed parenting several times over years, recalling in a 2011 interview what it was like to meet Luciana, 49, when she was already a mother.

“I jumped into the deep end,” he told Parade at the time, referring to himself as “an extra dad” to Alexia. “It sounds stupid, but at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows, like, five times its size? Everything is full. It’s just full all the time.”

The couple expanded their family with the birth of Isabella in June 2011. Following her high school graduation in 2024, Isabella revealed that she would be attending New York University.

“It’s a surreal kind of time and the way it operates in your life, the older you get, because it just feels like I was holding her yesterday,” Matt told E! News at the time about his daughter going to college. “She’s like one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. She’s really cool.”