Matt Damon's snoresville tactic

Jul 15, 2007, 10:50 GMT

07/05/2007 - Matt Damon - Las Vegas, NV © Terry Thompson / PR Photos

Matt Damon loves being perceived as boring.

The actor deliberately tries to have a dull persona because he believes it stops him from attracting unwanted attention.

He told Esquire magazine "I've always played characters that have interested me, and I've got to work with directors like Soderbergh, Coppola, Spielberg, Redford, Minghella, Scorese and then De Niro, so I've done OK. But it's fine if people think I'm boring. That's a good thing.

"You want to protect your family but I've always tried to present this boring persona. Early in my career, my ex-girlfriend, Minnie Driver, said that if I want to protect myself I should create this other, dull identity. We came up with a name, and she had a badge made for me that spelled it out, and I'd slip into this persona when I did interviews. It worked, so I've kept that going throughout my entire working life."

Matt - who has a baby daughter with wife Luciana Barroso - says he could never cope with the intense level of fame that surrounds Angelina Jolie, his co-star in 'The Good Shephard'.

He added: "You always knew which day Angelina was working because there were like 40 cameras waiting outside. It got so much that they moved her trailer into the soundstage to keep her away from the paparazzi. I'd walk back and forth and they were like lions that had already fed and they'd just look at me. There might have been one pop as one guy took a picture."

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