For his first lead role in nearly two years, Matt Damon chose to play a man stranded on Mars in the Ridley Scott sci-fi adventure The Martian. But after having shot a small role in Interstellar, he was a bit hesitant about boarding the project. Damon remembers his conversation with Scott: "I said, 'You know, I really want to do this with you, but I just did a cameo in Chris Nolan's movie. Very, very different, but it's about a guy stranded by himself on a planet. It might be weird to follow that up with playing a guy stranded on Mars.' And Ridley said, 'It's not going to matter. One year in between the films - that's a lifetime now!'"

Matt Damon in The MartianMatt Damon ponders life on Mars after starring in 'The Martian'

Damon particularly liked how The Martian's script maintained the scientific authenticity and humorous tone of Andy Weir's novel. "I do believe these guys have a good sense of irony," he says. "Anybody I've met who has some kind of occupation that's cheating death all the time, they tend to have that kind of gallows humour and sarcasm. So we aimed to make the movie funny without losing a sense of what the stakes are."

Watch the trailer for 'The Martian' here:



And making the film caused Damon to think about the possibilities of actually sending a manned mission to Mars. "I can't really speak to the feasibility," he laughs. "But I know Nasa is planning on doing it about 20 years from now. It certainly seems like a worthwhile endeavour. I think we have to acknowledge that we need to get some of our species off this planet so that we're not one catastrophic event away from humanity never having existed. So I think it's worth it."

More: Watch Matt Damon's interview for 'The Martian'

And now, Damon is back filming a fourth Bourne movie, after an eight-year gap, reuniting with director Paul Greengrass. Nothing is known about the plot or even the title, but Damon is glad that he's still involved in the franchise. "I love this character," he says. "He's so smart and resourceful and easy to root for. I always wanted to play him again."

More: Read our review of 'The Martian'