Seeing Matt Damon live at the Harvard Arts First Festival 2013

We was fortunate to get tickets to go see John Lithgow's interview with Matt Damon yesterday at the Sanders Theatre, Harvard. Matt Damon was the receipient if the Harvard Arts Medal for 2013.

There was a long queue to get into the Sanders Theatre. Tickets were sold out in minutes last Tuesday. Athol went to queue for us as students had first preference for tickets. We were supposed to go together but Athol was sick in bed with a cold so I managed to get a friend, Venee, to come with me.

John Lithgow founded the Harvard Arts First Festival and is well known for his performance as Dick Solomon in Third Rock from the Sun.

Matt Damon is a well known actor and screenwriter. He acted in Good Will Hunting (which was based at MIT in Boston!), The Bourne Trilogy, Ocean's Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen, The Adjustment Bureau, The Talented Mr Ripley, etc. He was born and raised in Cambridge MA. He went to Harvard for 4 years and stayed in Lowell House however did not graduate. He then co-wrote Good Will Hunting with his friend Ben Affleck. He is 42 years old, is married and has 4 daughters.

It was great to hear Matt speak about growing up here in Cambridge and when he wrote the script for Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck. He was very humble, down to earth, inspiring and has a great sense of humor - he showed us a picture of him when he was in a school play dressed as Humpty Dumpty :)

They screened a clip from Good Will Hunting and a few photos from his movies.

He played Francois Pienaar in Invictus, did you recognise the Springbok jersey? I remember that he played the role well and the South African accent was pretty good :)

They also screened the trailer for his new movie where he  plays Liberace's lover - of all people! should be interesting :) Liberace is played by Michael Douglas. The movie is called Behind the Candelabra. Matt mentioned that he wore 4 wigs during the movie.

Matt is also involved in an organisation Water.org which helps distribute clean water to areas in great need. So he is really giving back to society.

There was a Q&A session. Matt mentioned that the moving scene near the end of Good Will Hunting where Ben Affleck speaks to him about coming everyday to his house, was actually done on the first take!

The President of Harvard, Drew Faust,  awarded him his Arts Medal for all his contributions to the Arts.

What a fun day! How often do you get to see such a great actor. One of the benefits of living in Cambridge.