Matt Damon was ready to take a break from acting before Oppenheimer call

Matt Damon has revealed that he was close to taking a career break from acting before being cast in Oppenheimer.

The Academy Award winner worked with Christopher Nolan on Interstellar and it is clear the pair enjoyed their experience as collaborators.

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During a couples therapy session with his wife, Damon made the promise to step away from acting on one condition - if Nolan came calling about his next project, Damon's break would be postponed.

Sure enough, Damon received a call about Oppenheimer.

READ MORE: You can forget about Christopher Nolan directing another Batman movie

“This is going to sound made up, but it’s actually true,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly.

“I had — not to get too personal — negotiated extensively with my wife that I was taking time off. I had been in ‘Interstellar’ and then Chris put me on ice for a couple of movies, so I wasn’t in the rotation, 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.

"This is without knowing whether or not he was working on anything, because he never tells you. He just calls you out of the blue. And so, it was a moment in my household.”

Cillian Murphy is finally a lead for Nolan

Oppenheimer tells the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and how he contributed to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Nolan has put together an all-star cast which includes Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Gary Oldman, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett and Kenneth Branagh.

Though Murphy is finally leading a Nolan movie, having previously appeared in supporting roles in projects such as Batman Begins and Inception, he says he would take any part, big or small, if it meant working with the director.

“I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I’m available and you want me to be in a movie, I’m there. I don’t really care about the size of the part. But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him,” Murphy explained to Yahoo.

“We have this long-standing understanding and trust and shorthand and respect. It felt like the right time to take on a bigger responsibility. And it just so happened that it was a huge one…Any actor would want to be on a Chris Nolan set, just to see how it works and to witness his command of the language of film and the mechanics of film and how he’s able to use that broad canvas within the mainstream studio system to make these very challenging human stories.

"I’m really proud of the movie and I’m really proud of what Chris has achieved. This was, for sure, a special one”.