Matt Damon has revealed that he passed on the chance to star opposite Seth MacFarlane’s foul-mouthed teddy bear in “Ted,” a decision he still struggles to understand. The role of John Bennett ultimately went to Mark Wahlberg, as reported [1] by Page Six.
Damon discussed the missed opportunity in his GQ Men of the Year cover story, published Thursday. He said he “talked [himself] out of it” despite having an unusually enthusiastic response when he first read the comedy’s script.
The 56-year-old actor said he does not “want to live with regret,” but the choice continues to puzzle him. The 2012 movie became a hit and eventually expanded into an entire franchise.
“I’ve never had this experience where I laughed so hard reading a script,” Damon said. His reaction was so strong that he brought the screenplay to dinner and read portions aloud to his friends.
Yet that immediate excitement did not persuade him to accept the part. Instead, Damon began second guessing what had made the script so funny and questioned whether the teddy bear was actually its strongest element.
“And then I just got too clever by half. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. Looking back, Damon acknowledged that his own analysis persuaded him to walk away from the project.
“So I overthought it, and I talked myself out of it,” he admitted. His regret was not limited to the movie’s eventual success or the franchise that followed.
“Ted” filmed in Damon’s hometown of Boston, meaning the production would have offered him more time near his father. Damon’s father died in 2017 at age 74.
“I look back and I go, ‘Man, that would’ve been six months back [home],” Damon said. That lost opportunity to spend an extended stretch at home added a personal dimension to his frustration over declining the role.
Even with that regret, Damon did not suggest that the casting should have turned out differently. He said he believes “the right actor got the part” and praised both Wahlberg’s performance and the finished movie.
“Mark [Wahlberg’s] great, and the movie’s great, and I wouldn’t have made it any better,” Damon said. Wahlberg, now 55, played John Bennett alongside MacFarlane’s talking bear.
Wahlberg previously acknowledged that he also needed convincing before joining “Ted.” In 2015, he told Men’s Fitness that the basic idea initially made him reluctant even to read the screenplay.
“I was reluctant to even read the script because it’s about a teddy bear coming to life. How do you pitch that?” Wahlberg said. “So I tried to pitch it to my wife [to] see if she liked it.”
Wahlberg said he described the “talking teddy bear” to his wife, Rhea Durham, while they were traveling to the Oscars. According to Wahlberg, her response was blunt: “You are a f–king idiot.”
The unusual premise ultimately proved enormously successful. “Ted” grossed more than $549 million worldwide and produced the 2015 sequel “Ted 2,” along with a prequel television series on Peacock.
The franchise is also set to continue with a forthcoming animated series scheduled to premiere on Peacock later this year. Damon’s decision therefore left him outside a project that grew far beyond the original movie.
Elsewhere in the GQ interview, Damon shared a serious family health ordeal involving his wife, Luciana Barroso. He revealed that Barroso, 50, suffered a brain aneurysm two years ago, shortly before the 2024 Oscars.
Damon’s film “Oppenheimer” won seven awards at that ceremony, including Best Picture, but Damon and Barroso missed the event itself. Barroso nevertheless pushed herself to attend the after-party because she remembered that Damon had missed the 2007 Oscars.
“She was like, ‘This time, we’re going out,’” Damon recalled. He described her decision to attend as both courageous and deeply important to him.
“And it was pretty f–king heroic of her to do that and really meaningful,” Damon said. Between that memory and his lingering thoughts about “Ted,” the interview found the actor revisiting two very different moments involving major Hollywood events and the people closest to him.