Matt Damon promised his wife he'd take time off work in couple's therapy, unless one thing occurred.

Matt Damon was ready to take a step back from acting until he got a call from Christopher Nolan. 

The actor, who rose to fame in the late 80s and early 90s, has been married to Luciana Barroso for 18 years. The pair, who met in 2003 when Damon spotted her "across the room" at a nightclub, married in 2005.

In a vulnerable confession, the actor shared it was during couple's therapy when he agreed with his wife to take a break from his job unless he got the call he'd been waiting for.

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The one stipulation was for director Nolan, who eventually did call to offer Damon the role of General Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer. 

"This is going to sound made up, but it's actually true," The Good Will Hunting star told Nolan and his Oppenheimer costars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr. during Entertainment Weekly's Around the Table. 

"I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off."

Damon previously worked with Nolan on 2014's Interstellar and confessed he'd been waiting to work with the director again.

"I had been in Interstellar, and then Chris [Nolan] put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn't in the rotation," the 52-year-old shared. 

"But I actually negotiated in couples therapy — this is a true story — the one caveat to my taking time off was if Chris Nolan called."

Matt Damon in Oppenheimer, 2023. Image: Universal Pictures.

Damon admitted that when he and Barroso struck their deal, he had absolutely no idea that a call was coming. 

"This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you," he continued. "He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household."

The surprise calls from Nolan are a quirk most actors who've collaborated with the director expect. In fact, they can never quite anticipate when the phone will ring.

It was the same for Murphy, who has worked with Nolan on six films. 

He shared he had been working on another movie when the call to play the leading role in Oppenheimer came.

"Chris' way of operating is that he just calls you out of the blue," the actor recalled. 

"I genuinely had no idea. He said he was making a movie about Oppenheimer and he said, 'I'd like you to play Oppenheimer.' I had to sit down. It was kind of overwhelming."

Rami Malek, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan at the Oppenheimer premiere, 2023. Image: Getty.

Nolan enjoys his process. 

"It's a fun way to do it," he admitted. "But it means that it's very difficult to call you to go out to dinner or something. Because every time you answer the phone it's like, what's it going to be?" 

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Luckily for Damon, he's had the support of Barroso the whole way through. 

"I do pride myself, in a large part because of her, at being a professional actor and what being a professional actor means is you go and you do the 15-hour day and give it absolutely everything, even in what you know is going to be a losing effort," the actor said on Jake's Takes. 

"And if you can do that with the best possible attitude, then you're a pro, and she really helped me with that." 

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.