Matt: When I was 15, 16, 17 we used to go backpacking across Mexico and Guatemala. We would begin by doing a language school course. They work by immersion therapy – you go to school for six hours a day and then you go home with a Mexican family. Spanish is the only language spoken. After a couple of weeks, we'd be ready to take a bus and travel around the country. I remember travelling on buses stuffed with chickens. Being from Boston, I'd never seen stuff like that and I'd never seen poverty like I saw there. The way people live out in the country. They are very poor, living in shacks – it's a type of poverty you don't really encounter in the north-east of America.
My wife is my soul mate. I can't imagine being without her. Being a parent, as any parent knows, is a lot of work whether you are together or not. Our 13 year old is terrific, and she's a big help, but with the other kids it's just non stop. We like to do a lot of the family stuff together, particularly when we get them to school in the mornings. It starts at 6.30am. Once you get them off to school there's always a sigh of relief. Then we have one hour where we can go and get a cup of coffee together.
Before I had kids I remember Don [Cheadle] saying to me that one of the great things about being an actor is that when you're not working you can be there in a way that most dads can't. And it's true you can be there 100% of the time – with everything.
We have a two-week rule – we can't be apart as a family for longer – and so far we haven't gone beyond a week. I am doing a movie in Vancouver at the moment and I get a red-eye flight Friday night then on Sunday night I catch the red-eye flight back so I get back to Vancouver at 1.30am. Then I sleep and go to work at 5.30am. It's brutal. The good news is that the kids know that I'm going to be home every weekend. As they are waking up on Saturday morning, I come through the door.
Jeremy plays a new CIA operative in the film based on Robert Ludlum’s novels. He hopes that he will one day get to work alongside former Bourne star Matt Damon.
“Selfishly I dream of Matt and I actually doing one, being adversaries or whatever it may be,” he said. But there’s no talks or anything. This one has to do well, people have to like it and want to see another one.”
As for fight scenes Jeremy doesn’t see himself getting aggressive with Matt in real life. He believes the pair would get along famously.
“I think we’d rather get a beer than fight,” he laughed.
