Matt Damon & David Letterman’s Quick Cameos In ‘The Gilded Age’ Premiere Explained
Matt Damon and David Letterman made unexpected cameos in the season four premiere of The Gilded Age!
The 56-year-old actor and the 79-year-old talk show host and comedian appeared in a quick moment during the HBO series’ first new episode back, airing on Sunday night (November 1).
Per Vulture, the two could be seen for just six seconds, starting at eight minutes and 33 seconds into the season premiere episode, where they are dressed to fit in to the show’s atmosphere, and can just be seen walking across the street. Neither had any lines.
Matt went a little more undercover with sideburns and a bushy mustache, while David was seen in his normal appearance, with his full beard he’s been rocking for awhile now.
So, how did Matt Damon and David Letterman‘s The Gilded Age cameos come to be?
Matt Damon and David Letterman’s The Gilded Age cameos explained
David Letterman has long wanted to become a background actor after seeing his friend, comedian Gary Mule Deer, in a scene in Annie Hall in 1977. He has had several times more recently where he’s come close, but this time it finally happened.
According to Isabel Richardson, who serves as showrunner on his Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, the Gilded Age cameo came as what started out as research for Matt‘s upcoming appearance on My Next Guest.
While researching the actor, Isabel and the team learned that Matt started his career as a background actor and they thought, “Okay, this could be the perfect opportunity” for David.
“It’d be really fun for Dave to do this with Academy Award–winner Matt Damon, and it tied into his origin story really well,” Isabel shared with Vulture, adding that when presented with a list of possible field segment options, Matt “unequivocally chose this idea as his favorite. And this was by far the silliest, most ridiculous idea.”
They researched options of what was filming in New York during production of My Next Guest, and Isabel noticed The Gilded Age, which coincidentally, a line producer on My Next Guest had a friend who worked on the HBO series.
The cameo request made it’s way to Gilded Age executive producer Kate Churchill, who made it happen!
“It was a kind of hysterical moment when our production supervisor Leah Baker came up to me on set and was like, ‘Well, I have a kind of funny, interesting question: Would you like Dave Letterman and Matt Damon to be background on our set one day?’” she recalled. “I just started laughing.”
She then brought the idea to showrunner and creator Julian Fellowes, HBO head of drama Francesca Orsi and HBO CEO Casey Bloys, who all thought it was “hysterical,” though Kate thought it could possibly be distracting for the audience.
“The only way I could think of was if we did it in a very controlled manner and it was a shot that we needed, so there was a high chance of it making the cut,” Kate told Vulture.
She then wanted to make sure the scene would take place on a closed set, “where we control everything, and the public doesn’t have access,” which made scheduling a little tricky. “There’s a very specific number of days that that could happen, and our schedule is set. I went back to Isabel like, ‘These are your choices of days, and it has to work for both these guys.’”
“I have to really give credit to our studios because a simple idea was actually quite complicated,” Kate said. “Things like, Matt had to be paid as a background person, but of course he works under his own company. There were a lot of emails going around, but people really locked arms, and both studios saw that it was a fun collaboration where we could help each other.”
As for the day of filming, Kate Churchill recalls David was “like a kid in a candy shop” as he was “so excited and curious about everything.”
Isabel Richardson added, “Matt Damon was laughing so hard throughout the day, and he had this mustache on, so anytime he laughed, he would have to hold on to his mustache to make sure it didn’t come loose.”
“It really was one of those rare moments in our business where everyone’s having a lot of fun doing something special, and there was this great authenticity to it that felt very specific to these two shows,” Kate said.
Posted To:David Letterman Matt Damon Television The Gilded Age
