Matt Damon on Spielberg's Filmmaking in 'Saving Private Ryan'

"I remember when I was doing Saving Private Ryan, there was a scene between a couple other guys and Spielberg moved on. We were, he was marching off to the next kind of little, uh, place he was going to shoot, and I said, 'Stephen, you know, don't you think we should have done a couple more takes of that thing, you know, because it hadn't been great?' He turned on a dime, and he said, 'I could spend another hour on that scene and perhaps make it 10% better, or I can go do another great shot. I'm gonna do the shot.'" - Matt Damon

[SakuraVyn]

Walks away.... "psssh, he thinks he can call me Steven"

[clydefrog]

A polite way of saying “don’t tell me how to do my job and shut the fuck up”.

[chrisknoblock]

Code for "That scene is gonna be cut if I don't like it anyway."

[GenericInternetter]

everyone in the comments berating Damon for his professionalism. a good employee is forward and honest with his boss and asks if they can improve the work. I respect Damon's approach here.

what would you prefer? a mindless actor that doesn't give a shit about the performance and just sprints to their trailer after each shot? you people seem to just enjoy complaining.

[adamelam]

Clint Eastwood has the same style. Studios love him because his movies always get made well before the allotted time.

[guitarsrcool]

I like what Eastwood said to him when he wanted to do another take. " Why, you want to waste everyone's time "? Lol

[RedStarRogue]

Spielberg always seems to like shooting very quickly and not caring too much about continuity, totally opposite from Kubrick who would spend weeks shooting one scene.

[marclopez]

Damon just confirmed for himself that the 1st take was good enough. A compliment coming from the top.

[emmanuelatti]

Few directors are obsessed with the perfect shot or the perfect performance or the perfect scene.
Most directors are satisfied with the "good enough".
It might sound lazy but I'd say it's professional because every second you spend working on a scene cost money.

[weilim]

Ben Affleck: Wouldn't it make more sense to train astronauts to be oil drillers instead of training oil drillers to be astronauts?

Michael Bay: Shut the fuck up, Ben!

[NeoConnor]

Steven Spielberg won practically every best director award that year.

He knew what he was doing.

[GMETH]

Everytime I watch interviews with Matt Damon, I'm like damn I wish he was my uncle and told me stories from the filming, he must have dozens of stories he hasn't said yet, he's a good story teller

[hummingpylon]

A polite way of saying "your acting skills were maxed"

[jmyname]

And yet a ststk contrast between Spielberg and Kubrik... Kubrick would probably have agreed and asked everyone what they thought. But there's a reason why his films took 5 years to make lol and why they were so dam good

[ThommyKane]

What he taught Matt that day is how to a finish a film on time and under budget. 🤘

[JustinMoralesTheComposer]

“ you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” - Steve Spielman

[tylerthompson]

Spielberg like kid I’ve seen your other work and that’s as good as it gets

[MrBdatta]

Thankfully a better convo than the one Damon had with Eastwood during Invictus

[Kefir-fwqf]

I am a painter and with more years under my belt i totaly agree with mr. Spielberg. Don't overdue what can't benefit from this extra work.

[postrock]

Time is precious on a film set. And the budget.