Matt Damon says taking up first 'Bourne' film was a smart move

Melbourne, Mar 8 : Matt Damon thinks signing the first 'Bourne' film was the smartest move he ever made.

All set to play an US Army officer in the new Iraq-set thriller 'Green Zone', Damon says he's an unlikely action hero.

"Sure, I'm an unlikely action hero. That's why I was cast in 'The Bourne Identity' in the first place," News.com.au quoted Damon as saying.

"At that point, I'd done Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan and The Talented Mr Ripley, and a few films that had tanked. Bourne didn't seem a logical place to go. But, boy, am I glad I went there," he added.

Touted as one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, with a reputed earning power of about 16.5 million dollars per film, Damon has often said that Jason Bourne saved his career.

After playing Tom Ripley, in 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', he starred alongside Will Smith in 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' and then in the screen version of Cormac McCarthy's cult book 'All the Pretty Horses'.

However, both the films bombed at the box office. When The Bourne Identity was reshot and delayed by more than a year, rumours flew that this was Damon's third strike.

"The phone had stopped ringing. Nobody was putting me in anything. I was doing a play in [London's] West End when Bourne opened. Suddenly I received 20 or 30 offers and I was on a short list of people who could get movies made," he said.

"I'm sure Hollywood would have written me off as some weirdo art-house liberal if the three Bourne films hadn't made such a phenomenal amount of money," he added.

"You can only be as smart as the films you say yes to," said Damon.