Were those your real parents, David?
Beckham: No, those were actors. I wish they were! I’d love to have seen my mom and dad act even though they are separated. So there could have been complications there as well. But no, it was Christopher and Mary. And they were unbelievable, actually. They were brilliant.
Now I’m wondering how many people are going to watch the ad and think those were your actual parents.
Beckham: That’s going to be one of the main questions, I think!
So take us on set, what was it like? I’m sure knowing the crew so well changes the atmosphere.
Damon: Yeah, it’s all the people that Ben works with on his films, so I know them all really well. It was good that we had them because they’re the best at what they do and somebody needed to keep the ship straight because we were kind of having too much fun. But Ben kind of designed it that way. You know, we didn’t know, when it comes to David, how nimble he’d be. It turned out he has serious chops. We got there with a script that we all worked on and were happy with. But once it became clear that David could improvise and do all this stuff, we started to adorn it with all kinds of ad libs and improvisation.
Beckham: But as you can imagine, for me it was very daunting to have to stand in front of Matt trying to remember what lines I had to say and try to look very authentic in front of someone who is incredible. So yes, it was quite daunting. But we had a lot of fun.
I mean, David, you had me fooled. I literally thought you were with your parents.
It was all from, you know, Matt’s teaching.
So who had the bigger entourage on set?
Damon: Well, David had one person with him, so his was much, much larger than mine.
Beckham: Ben. Ben had the biggest. For sure.
Matt, you killed it last year in the Dunkin ad and now this year you’re here with Stella and David. It seems like being in a big Super Bowl ad is becoming an annual tradition for you.
Damon: Well, look, [Tom] Brady killed it in our ad, so we gotta do right by David this year. Even though they’re friends, I’m sure there’s gonna be some competition there.
Beckham: We are very competitive.
Damon: They’re kind of known for that, you know.
Another question about your acting process, Matt, for such a serious role: Were you actually eating the chicken wings on set?
Damon: Yeah, they were great. They were actually fantastic.
But isn’t there that actor trick when you’re not really eating them and just kind of shuffling food around?
Damon: If you do a scene in a movie where you have to eat a lot, yeah, it’s best that the second you hear “Cut” you spit it out, cause you know you’re gonna have to eat a lot more. But in this case, we were only in that little wing station for a half an hour. I think any guy can eat wings for a half an hour and be fine.
