The Martian comes out tomorrow. Variety reports that it’s been outselling Gravity in advance tickets. Some are projecting an opening weekend box office in the low $40s and others are thinking it might go all the way into the $50s. Oh and NASA told us they found water or something on Mars this weekend. Convenient. The point is Matt Damon looks strong at #1 by Sunday, even though he admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that:

"I'm not angst-free. I mean, look, I've got a lot riding on this movie."

That’s the Matt Damon I like. The one who’s not above sharing that he wants his work to be financially viable, unlike so many of them who are like, eh, whatever, I put my art out there and after that it’s out of my control, I don’t care. He cares. He’s been hustling the sh-t out of The Martian, making some mistakes along the way. We’ve covered those mistakes here and here. Now he’s covering for his best friend.

Matt’s discussion with THR ranges from politics to Bourne to family (thanks for keeping it all a mystery, Matt) to Ben. This is the part everyone is talking about.

"There's nobody who's more misunderstood. Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been farther apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez. He just got cast as this person that he wasn't. It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn't fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all. And through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top and past where either of us had ever been."

I appreciate his loyalty. You’ll note however that he does not address Ben’s immediate situation, and all that business with Chrissy O, preferring to safely offer commentary only on the past. But I wonder, in 10 years, what he’ll be saying about Ben’s current cycle of foolishness.

Click here to read the full article on Matt Damon at THR.