For the casual viewer, it’s easy to see why someone would confuse Jesse Plemons and Matt Damon. They have a similar face and blonde haircut. Jesse, 36, opened up about the similarities to Matt, 53, during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, June 12. Before talking about the comparisons, Jesse took part in a hilarious skit with Jimmy Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez.
For those who may not be familiar with Jimmy’s rivalry with Matt, the late-night host and Academy Award winner have a satirical public feud, stemming from Jimmy using the sign-off phrase “Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time.” Since then, the Good Will Hunting star has never formally appeared on Jimmy’s talk show, but he’s attempted to “sneak” on many times, and they’ve played up the feud quite a bit in various media appearances.
All that being said, let’s get back to Jesse. After Jimmy gave his introduction, the camera cut to his sidekick Guillermo, who had the Breaking Bad actor in a cage in a separate room, mistaking him for Matt. “I’ve got him, Jimmy,” he said. Jesse tried to clarify that he wasn’t Matt, and Guillermo said, “Nice try, you son-of-a-b***h.” Eventually, he let him out.
Following the hilarious sketch, Jesse spoke about the rumors at the top of the interview. Jesse said he looks “just enough” like The Departed star to have people mention it to him. “It has somewhat been haunting me for a little while,” he said, before sharing a story. “There was an occasion at the Toronto Film Festival maybe 10 years ago or so, where I was stepping into an elevator.”
Jessee continued and said that a fan had questioned him about whether or not he was The Martian actor, and she clearly didn’t believe him. “This woman asked me. She’s like, ‘Are you Matt Damon?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not,'” he said. “She looked at me as if, ‘Wow, Matt Damon is a liar.'”
Jimmy playfully suggested Jesse joining him to do some damage to Matt Damon’s image, using the resemblance. He then asked the Friday Night Lights star if he felt that they looked alike. “It’s hard for me to say. Not really, no,” he said. “When I was younger, my aunt watched Good Will Hunting and for some reason called and told my mom, ‘This is what Jesse’s going to look like.”