Matt Damon rips into Oscars campaigning: ‘Completely backwards’

Matt Damon feels no goodwill toward Oscars time.

The actor, who will star this summer in Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated “The Odyssey,” was asked on Netflix’s “Skip Intro” podcast what he doesn’t dig about show business.

“Awards season,” he said. “100%.”

Damon, 55, has been nominated for three acting Oscars during his career — for “Good Will Hunting,” “Invictus” and “The Martian.” And alongside friend and “Good Will Hunting” collaborator Ben Affleck, he won the Academy Award for best screenplay in 1998.

Matt Damon says he is putt off by awards season campaigning.

But the star of “The Rip” doesn’t enjoy all the wheeling and dealing that happens on the road to victory at the Dolby Theater.

“What I don’t like is this idea of campaigning,” Damon said. “It seems completely backwards to me and odd. Maybe it’s good for movies, just having it all out there and gets the culture thinking and talking about movies. I hope that’s the case.”

There is a strong chance, however, that he’ll have to endure some Q&As and shake a few voters’ hands next year. Nolan’s last film, “Oppenheimer,” won seven Oscars in 2024, including best picture. 

The visionary’s latest project is massive, Damon told the podcast — going so far as to compare it to the epic work of the director of “Lawrence of Arabia.” 

Damon and Ben Affleck won the Oscar for best screenplay in 1998.

“Doing ‘The Odyssey’ this last year, it felt like my one chance in my life to make a David Lean movie, you know?” he said. “That I was making the last big movie on film that I was ever going to get to make.”

Damon plays the legendary Greek king Odysseus in Nolan’s movie, which also stars Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron. It hits theaters July 17.

The budget for the flick that was shot entirely on 70 MM IMAX film cameras is about $250 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.