In 1987, when Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Ain't Got You," he was the biggest rock star in the world. He had vast estates in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, and he had not long returned from a honeymoon at Gianni Versace's villa in Lake Como. "Ain't Got You" was Springsteen's attempt to make a self-aware nod to his outrageous fortune, the Rembrandts on his walls, and how he had come a long way from his working-class upbringing.
Before he released it, Springsteen played "Ain't Got You" to Steve Van Zandt, his best friend since they were teenagers and a key cohort in his E Street Band. Van Zandt was appalled. "I'm, like: 'This is bulls—-,' " he recalled telling Springsteen. " 'People don't need you talking about your life. Nobody gives a s—- about your life. They need you for their lives. That's your thing.' "
The argument came back to me as I waited to meet Matt Damon. If Springsteen is the voice of the American heartland, channeling its concerns and its struggles, then Damon is the physical embodiment. In a career that started for most of us in 1997 with "Good Will Hunting," a film that he co-wrote and starred in with his childhood friend Ben Affleck, the 42-year-old actor has specialized in playing the everyman. His most enduring roles — from the eponymous hero of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" to the ex-CIA assassin with amnesia in three wildly popular Bourne movies — have traded on his skill to be relatable to a mass audience. And, quite simply, no one does it better: the U.S. business magazine Forbes found in 2007 that for every $1 Damon was paid, his films made $29 of gross income — the best return in all of Hollywood. He is the all-American movie star.