The Bourne Identity comes to Showcase on Saturday, April 24 at 4pm and 12am ET/PT

In the first of three action-packed Bourne films, The Bourne Identity, actor Matt Damon portrays Jason Bourne, a super-spy with a bout of what appears to be amnesia. Desperate to discover who he really is, Bourne frantically sets out on his own to reveal the secret of his true identity. On his search to uncover the truth, he stumbles upon shocking information that he is an elite government assassin who has, for some unknown reason, becomes a pariah and is no longer trusted by the people he once worked for.

Thanks to repeat box office success of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum (both directed by Paul Greengrass) and his critically acclaimed performance this past fall as real-life corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre in director Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, Damon could very well become the recipient of his first Best Actor Academy Award. In a recent interview, Damon sat down to recall his tenure as Jason in the his legendary Bourne series of espionage thrillers, his Oscar buzz, the prank his BFF George Clooney played on him concerning his Sexiest Man Alive status, and how he continues to grow as an actor.

Glad to see you're okay--there were some bizarre rumours on the internet that you had died.
Yeah, why do some of your journalists pals do that? Well, I just wanted some attention! [laughs] No, actually, I had to call my parents and everything. But that's a really reckless thing to do. I don't even know why someone would think that's funny. I mean, it might be like some 15-year-old kid doing it. But I will say that my publicist got all these phone calls, and from very reputable sources, like CNN and The Boston Globe. And they were like, 'What's going on?' But it just got sillier and sillier. And, the misinformation now can get around quicker. Because a lot of journalists are just lazy! That's why. There, I said it. Lazy bastards! I ought to just do interior monologues from now on.

Did you get hurt at all doing the stunts for any of the Bourne films?
Well, the fighting stuff, yeah, there was a huge difference. In Identity, the first movie, I was 29, and this last one, I was 36, and I definitely felt my age. And particularly because that big fight scene in Tangier, Joey, the other actor, the guy that I was fighting, was like 23 years old. The first movie came out and he was in high school. And he was so happy. He was like, 'Mate, I'm in a Bourne fight, this is great!' And he is in really good shape, and he's already like a much better athlete than me. So I was like, 'Oh, man, Joey, you're killing me! You gotta slow down.' [laughs] And so I think it took probably a couple extra days. You know, it probably cost the studio a couple extra days because I'm a little older now. [laughs]

Since you were being offered both film leads at the same time, I bet you're happy you decided to do The Bourne Identity instead of the remake of Planet Of The Apes with Tim Burton.
I wouldn't be presumptuous enough to say that the Bourne films wouldn't have been successful without me, but who knows if they could have found another fool like me to make three -- maybe four -- of them? [laughs] Before then, I had absolutely no desire to play an action hero, even as I got older. The script was just too good to pass up.

Do you ever have any regrets about having played Jason Bourne for seven years?
No, not at all. The Bourne movies allowed me to make risky career moves, even if they looked like box office misses. I got to do Syriana, which was a very complicated movie. George (Clooney) and I cut all of our money in order to do it. Then I did The Departed, which did win an Oscar for Best Picture. At the time I did it, I knew Martin Scorsese movies don't usually make a lot of money at the box office. But it would be an incredible experience to work with him. And then I did The Good Shepherd, which I fell in love with but it was a dense, cerebral epic about the birth of an intelligence agency in America. None of these were Spider-Man 3. But, I didn't hesitate doing the movies, because I had Bourne out there in the distance and the audience was out there. Jason Bourne allowed me creative freedom. So the Bourne movies really just allowed me creatively freedom to make all the I wanted.

In terms of you career, how do you feel about the Bourne films?
I'm proud of each of those movies, they all did very well, and some of them did incredibly well. They were all reviewed really well, so they all just made a big impact on my career. So that's like an ancillary way that the Bourne character has completely changed my life -- starting with Identity.

Does Jason really know who he is?
Well, he should by the end of the three films. I mean, I don't know how long we can ride that pony. [laughs]

Do you think that he can ever be happy?
Yeah, that's a good question. After three films, I have to say I don't know if that guy can ever be happy.

Earlier, we were talking about internet rumors, so what's up with the next Bourne movie?
Well, the Bourne movie, we need to get a script that's good. And if we can get a script that's good, we'd do it. But there's not one in the next year, at least. Maybe in two years we could shoot one, if we got a good script.

Would you really like there to be a fourth film?
By doing three, I kind of felt like we had already book-ended the things he had been through and his story had been told. Obviously, there are still other secrets and missions about Jason that we would want to see... So if I get a call in 10 years from (director) Paul Greengrass and if there's a great idea then I would think about it.

While you were promoting The Good Shepherd, you said that your day as Jason Bourne was over. What changed your mind?
Well, I made that comment at the Cannes Film Festival when we were nine months into shooting Bourne Ultimatum. I did say, 'I'm never doing this again.' Now, well... [laughs] In terms of doing another one, the story of Jason Bourne searching for his identity is over. We can't trot that out again. So much of what makes Jason interesting is this internal struggle: Am I a good guy or a bad guy? What am I blocking out?' That story has been told.

You could always get Bourne to lose his memory again.
A journalist did suggest to me that we do a fourth one about Bourne losing his keys. For the entire movie, he runs around going, 'Where are my keys? Where are my keys?' [laughs]

Did George Clooney call you to console you about the whole Sexiest Man Alive spread in People a couple of years ago?
Console me! He's such an asshole! He literally called me in Tangier. And I know it's him when I pick up the phone and hear this laugh! And I'm like, 'What did you do? And he told me about this picture that he got into People Magazine, of me in like a snakeskin suit. Then I get it faxed to me! Yeah, I've been hearing about it ever since.

Do you see yourself as still learning to be an actor?
Oh yeah. It's like golf. You can never perfect it, you know? It's not like you figure out how to do it. Every role is different. And every day on a film set is different. So it's just always a different kind of problem to solve. And that's what is fun about it. You don't have to do the same thing over and over.

How are you feeling about the Oscar buzz surrounding your performance in The Informant?
I don't know. Ultimately, I think those award things appeal to the child inside of us, in a sense. So it's not necessarily rational. And like you go, 'Is this movie gonna appeal to Oscar voters, or is it really something that blows you away.'

In some of the trailers for your new film, Invictus, you look really buffed-up. Did you have to train for to put on those muscles at all?
I sure did. They certainly weren't fake. I did a lot of weight-lifting. [laughs]

Do you think that you and Ben [Affleck] will team up again for another project together?
We've been talking about it for years, and have been trying to find the right time to do it. It's been twelve years since the last one and we both put our heads down and worked pretty hard in this last twelve years, and so now we've woken up with careers and families and all the things that we wanted. Hopefully, the next ten years will be about doing better work, maybe doing a little less of it, but doing better stuff and doing more together.

You once said that the life of a movie star has a finite point. After enjoying hit after hit, do you still believe it could all be over in the blink of an eye?
Look, you see actors come and go, I know the deal, I've been around. You breathe this rarified air for a very short time. I think I have a real limited chance to choose certain movies. But I'm very happy with the choices I've made because they're the more challenging movies. Whether they're big box office hits or favorite at festivals, I just want them to be good and maintain my integrity. I want movie fans to see that if I have a movie at Sundance or Toronto, it's going to be something that they want to see. I want to make films for movie-lovers like myself. If I can do that, than I've done my job.