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 eventuallydidcall to offer Damon the role of General Leslie Groves inOppenheimer.

"This is going to sound made up, but it's actually true,"The Good Will Huntingstar told Nolan and hisOppenheimercostars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr. during Entertainment Weekly'sAround 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'sInterstellarand confessed he'd been waiting to work with the director again.

"I had been inInterstellar, 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."

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 inOppenheimercame.

"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."

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.

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