Matt Damon Says Boston Culture Can Be 'Abrasive' But to Him It's Like 'a Comfortable Pair of Socks' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Matt DamonandCasey Affleckused their new movie as a chance to return to their roots.

Damon tells PEOPLE the Doug Liman-directed comedy marked his first time filming in Boston since 2006’sThe Departed. “The sense of humor and the way that people just tend to look at the world back here,” he says, is “really fun when you come from it because you know what it is.”

Matt Damon at the New York premiere of ‘The Instigators’ July 31.Dia Dipasupil/WireImage

Dia Dipasupil/WireImage

“It can feel abrasive to people who aren’t from here. But when you’re from here, it feels like, you know, a comfortable pair of socks.”

Affleck, who co-wroteThe Instigatorswith Chuck Maclean, recalls a complicated catharsis in making a movie withhis childhood friendthere. “Boston has changed a lot,” he points out. “It’s really not the city that we grew up in… The whole country has changed. There’s been so much change in the culture.”

He continues, “On the other hand, it’s the place I still feel more at home than anywhere else. So that says something about what a place does to you when you’re growing. I’ll forever be connected to this place no matter how much it changes.”

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The Instigatorsis “a heightened reality that we’ve built — it’s not the real world,” adds Damon. What “made it fun” while filming with Affleck, he says, was that “it is grounded enough that it feels like a Boston movie.”

source: people.com