Matt Damon Once Lived in Tennessee for a Month Working as a Bartender

Matt Damon was not about to lose the biggest opportunity of his acting career because of a lousy southern accent.

The Academy Award winner recently shared in a sit down with GQ that he once spent a month in Knoxville, Tenn. working as a bartender in order to immerse himself into the sounds of the south.

Matt Damon Was Once a Bartender in Tennessee

While chatting with this fellow Odyssey co-stars Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, Damon recounted that season of his life. He had an opportunity to play the lead in the 1997 film The Rainmaker and he took his role very seriously.

"I bartended down in Knoxville, Tenn., to pick up an accent," he tells them. "And did that for like a month."

"I mean, it was a big break for me. It was in a Francis Ford Coppola movie," he continues. "And I had a month to kill and then we were gonna have three weeks of rehearsals in Napa Valley where he lived."

What Bar Did Matt Damon Work at in Tennessee?

While Damon didn't name the bar he worked at, he did note that he made sure his time at the watering hole was mutually beneficial for both parties.

"So, I went, I moved to Knoxville and I just told the manager, this woman, I just told her what I was doing," he recalls. "It was an extra bartender for her at no charge, right? I was like, 'I'll give all my tips to these guys, and I just need to be here.'"

'Cause if you're serving drinks to people — and the guy was a bartender in the movie — but if you're serving drinks to people they talk to you," he adds.

What Is the Film The Rainmaker About?

Based on John Grisham's 1995 book of the same name, the story follows new attorney Rudy Baylor (Damon) as he takes on a large insurance corporation after they refuse to offer a woman coverage for her dying son.

The film also stars Danny DeVito, Claire Danes and Jon Voight. Randy Travis also has a role in the flick as Billy Porter. At one point Billy punches Leo F. Drummond (Voight) in the face.