Even Matt Damon thinks “The Great Wall” was a mistake … and he said one of his daughters pointed that out to him as well.
During an episode of “WTF with Marc Maron” in 2021 (via The Hollywood Reporter), Damon said that he felt as if director Zhang Yimou was trying to adhere to far too many notes from high-ranking Hollywood backers — which, to him, was a bad sign. “I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen,” Damon said to Damon at the time. “It doesn’t cohere. It doesn’t work as a movie.”
Still, Damon agrees with Zhang that the movie isn’t based in cultural appropriation, nor does it traffick stereotypes, because his character William Gavin was never meant to be Chinese and ends up learning from the soldiers at the Great Wall. Comparing it to films like “Dances With Wolves” and “Avatar,” Damon explained, “It’s an outsider comes into a new culture, finds value in the culture, brings some skill from the outside that aids them in their fight against whatever and they’re all changed forever.” (Interestingly, Damon turned down a role in “Avatar.”)
One person who really doesn’t like “The Great Wall,” though, is one of Damon’s three daughters, who he says was 15-years-old at the time. “Whenever she talks about the movie, she calls it ‘The Wall,'” he laughed. “And I’m like, come on, it’s called The Great Wall. And she’s like, ‘Dad, there’s nothing great about that movie.’ She’s one of the funniest people I know.”
Despite Damon’s daughter’s apparent best wishes, “The Great Wall” is streaming on Netflix now.
