There’s a long-running discourse that Jesse Plemons and Matt Damon are celebrity lookalikes, and Jesse is now weighing in on if he sees the resemblance.
On Tuesday, Jesse appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to chat about his new film Kinds of Kindness. However, before Jesse got to talking with Jimmy, he indulged in a skit where the host’s sidekick, Guillermo, locked him up after mistaking him for Matt Damon.
So, as soon as Jesse sat down for the interview, it shouldn’t be surprising that Jimmy asked him about his resemblance to the actor.
“It has somewhat been haunting me for a little while,” Jesse said, recalling when he was mistaken for the actor at the Toronto Film Festival about a decade ago.
“This woman asked me, ‘Are you Matt Damon?’ I said, ‘No, I’m sorry. I’m not.’ And she looked at me as if [she was thinking], ‘Wow, Matt Damon is a liar and an asshole.’ I felt bad,” Jesse said.
As for if Jesse sees the resemblance, he told Jimmy, “It’s hard for me to say. Not really, no.” He went on to tell a story about his aunt, who years ago called his mother shortly after seeing the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, which Matt starred in and cowrote with Ben Affleck.
“This is what Jesse is gonna look like when he gets older,” Jesse recalled his aunt telling his mom about Matt’s appearance in the film.
The resemblance is notable enough that Jesse even played Matt’s character, John Grady Cole, as a kid in the 2000 film All the Pretty Horses. However, Jesse’s scenes ended up cut from the film.
“I was supposed to be the very first scene of the movie. We sit down, and I’m not there, and I keep thinking, oh, well, you know [they] could have changed it in the edit. Sat through the whole thing, and I never showed up,” Jesse said.
Fortunately, it was only a matter of time before Jesse’s career blew up, thanks to his role on Friday Night Lights. He’s been riding high ever since, including with Kinds of Kindness, where he plays characters across three segments. He even won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
