Future is now: Matt Damon on Elysium
Elysium depicts a future in which the elite lord it over the earth from a space station. Matt Damon tells Thea Klapwald why the film is really a parable for today
MATT DAMON'S HEAD is no longer shaved like it was in Elysium - his hair has grown back to its recognisable length. And if he still has a six-pack, it is not evident under his loose T-shirt. Sitting in the Four Seasons Los Angeles, Damon looks relaxed and comfortable; there is no sign of Max, the anti-hero he recently portrayed in South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp's new science-fiction movie.
Unlike the director's 2009 debut feature, District 9, Blomkamp's second effort is a straight narrative rather than part mock-documentary. But like that movie, in which extraterrestrials are forced to live in slum-like conditions on earth, Elysium serves as a platform for Blomkamp's rather dark vision of the world, where 1 per cent of the population control everything and live in a pristine, but surreal, gated space community called Elysium. There is no middle class and the crippled, impoverished 99 per cent of humanity left on earth are subject to the whims of the super-rich and their brutal robot army.
Although Elysium opens with the dateline 2154, Damon shoots down the notion that Blomkamp meant for his parable to be strictly sci-fi, or set in the distant future. "It's totally meant to be today. The difference between life for you and me and for someone making a dollar a day is as stark as someone living in a space station," the actor says.
Starring opposite Jodie Foster ( Elysium's power-hungry Secretary Delacourt) and Blomkamp's countryman, Sharlto Copley (who plays the evil character Kruger), Damon is forceful on camera. He dominates every scene, whether he is winning over his childhood sweetheart (Alice Braga), bantering with his best friend (Diego Luna), or struggling inside his newly pimped-out robotic body.
