SEOUL, South Korea – Matt Damon’s taken on many different roles throughout his illustrious career, but there’s one that’s particularly special to him. ([WATCH] Matt Damon returns as ‘Jason Bourne’: 11 fun facts about the movie)

In an interview with Rappler for his upcoming movie, Jason Bourne, Matt said that taking on the character in the first movie, released in 2002, marked a shift in the kind of roles he would be offered.

“Personally, the role really was a huge shift in my career and I’d never done an action movie before The Bourne Identity and nobody knew me as an actor who would be in an action movie,” said Matt.

Matt has since been cast in movies like Syriana, Invictus, and Adjustment Bureau. Most recently in 2015, he also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Martian.

“I was known for a different kind of work and so it really opened up a whole new avenue for me of roles that I can get, and it put me on a shortlist of actors that got me access to a lot of directors that I really wanted to work with, so it was a big, gamechanging role for me,” added Matt.

His Jason Bourne co-star, Alicia Vikander, said the same in a separate interview later on.

“He’s such a diverse actor,” she told Rappler. “I love that he came from – when he started out – the films like Talented Mr Ripley and Good Will Hunting, the films he’s known for doing quite adult independent dramas, and this for him kind of showed the whole world him stepping into a very new role, and I look up to actors like him that can be chameleons.”

Watch her full interview below: 

Jason Bourne, directed by Paul Greengrass, is set to hit in theaters in the Philippines on Wednesday, July 27. – Rappler.com