Matt Damon says his wife, Luciana Barroso, suffered a brain aneurysm that required surgery just a week before the 2024 Academy Awards, where his film “Oppenheimer” took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture.
Damon shared the previously private health scare in a GQ cover story published Thursday. He and Barroso skipped the ceremony itself but managed to make it to an afterparty that night.
“It was first night she felt good enough to get up and had her energy back,” Damon said. “And she surprised me and got a dress and we went out to the afterparty.”
According to Damon, 56, his wife pushed herself to attend because she remembered a past Oscars he had missed entirely. In 2007, Damon was in Miami shooting “The Bourne Ultimatum” when “The Departed” won Best Picture and Martin Scorsese took home Best Director, and he wasn’t there to see it.
“She was like, ‘This time we’re going out,'” Damon recalled. “And it was pretty f—ing heroic of her to do that and really meaningful.”
Damon confirmed Barroso has since made a full recovery and is “totally fine.”
Looking back at 2007
Damon told GQ he still feels a pang about missing that earlier ceremony. At the time, he and Barroso were living in Miami with an infant daughter and watched the show from bed.
“Lucy and I were laying in bed watching it and so nervous for Marty,” Damon said. “And then when he won, I was jumping up and down in the bedroom and I remember being really excited.”
When “The Departed” then won Best Picture, Damon said the moment caught him off guard. “I turned to Lucy and I was like, ‘s—t, we should be there!'” he recalled.
Family life and “The Odyssey”
Damon and Barroso have been married since 2005 and have four daughters: Alexia, 27, Isabella, 20, Gia, 18, and Stella, 16. Damon told GQ the family normally sticks to a two-week rule limiting how long he’s away for work, but they made an exception for the final stretch of filming Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”
“I was away for three and a half weeks. The first half of the movie was the hardest because the kids were still in school,” Damon said. “And then once the summer hit, they could come to set and we could be together.”
Damon said his wife and daughters are big fans of Nolan’s work and understood the role was a major opportunity, which made the time apart easier to accept. “It was a sacrifice for them,” he said, “and they were awesome about it.”
