Matt Damon Reveals Why He Passed on Starring in ‘Ted’

In a new interview with GQ, Damon revealed that he passed on starring in Seth MacFarlane‘s 2012 comedy as John Bennett, the best friend of the foul-mouthed, party-loving teddy bear named Ted.

“I don’t want to live with the regret, but I can tell you that I passed on Ted, and I’ve never had this experience where I laughed so hard reading a script,” The Odyssey star said. “I literally took it to dinner and was reading parts of it out to my friends at dinner. And then I just got too clever by half. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was like, Well, maybe the teddy bear’s actually the best part.…”

Damon went on to explain why he decided to go in a different direction — and why he still thinks about what could have been.

“I overthought it and I talked myself out of it,” he said. “And because it shot in Boston, it would’ve been a chance for me to be home — my father’s passed away now, and I look back and I go, Man, that would’ve been six months back [home].”

The role ultimately went to fellow Boston native Mark Wahlberg, who stars alongside the talking teddy bear in the 2015 sequel, Ted 2.

Damon praised Wahlberg’s performance, saying the “right actor” got the part and that the movie turned out great. “I wouldn’t have made it any better,” he added.

The success of the two films later spawned a Ted prequel series on Peacock, which ran for two seasons.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, the Family Guy creator discussed the franchise’s future after the series ended and said he would be interested in making a third film.

“It’s up to Universal. It’s up to Peacock. A third season in the near future — I don’t know that there are any plans for that,” he said. “I’ve thrown the idea out that maybe we do a direct-to-Peacock Ted feature with this cast. That might be something that’s kind of fun. It was what, 10 years between the last Ted movie and the first episode of this series, and people were still there for it. He’s a character we can bring back at any time.”