Let it be known that Jason Bourne, the CIA’s elusive secret agent, is a man of few words. Opting to shoot first, pummel a few goons, and then ask questions, all across Universal’s action franchise Matt Damon’s spy has ensured his fists do the talking – a trend that will absolutely continue in two weeks’ time.
That’s because, as Damon revealed to The Guardian, Jason Bourne has only 25 lines of dialogue in Paul Greengrass’ imminent actioner and here, the actor himself offered his own two cents about maintaining the reticent, glowering demeanour that has helped Bourne become a genre icon.
“Well, I’ve done it three times. In the first movie, the Marie Kreutz character is still alive, so Bourne has a sounding board and he’s more confused about who he is and a lot more chatty. Once she dies in the first act of the second movie, it’s really a very lonely character. And we talked about that mostly on the second one. I remember [screenwriter] Tony [Gilroy] writing me an email saying, ‘You do realize what this means? You do realize you’re not going to talk in this movie.’ I said, ‘No, I love that.’”
From John Wick to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, there is a multitude of past examples where lead actors or actresses have favored a less-is-more approach, and after a genre-defining trilogy of action movies, Jason Bourne needs no introduction. After all, the subtitle for Universal’s reboot is ‘you know his name.’
On the flip-side, that measly total could equate to the amount of screentime that Damon’s rogue agent is set to enjoy, and it could certainly chime with those early trailers depicting Bourne as a wanted fugitive.
Emerging from hiding ten years after the events that transpired during Ultimatum, Jason Bourne will launch headfirst into theaters on July 29. Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles and Riz Ahmed also star.