Matt Damon Talks Us Through That Trailer for 'The Martian' — and Spills His (Prosthetic) Guts

Matt Damon got into astronaut shape for his upcoming Ridley Scott space drama, The Martian. But once he was happy with his physique, he had to cover it all up. “I worked out a lot,” the 44-year-old actor told Yahoo Movies during an interview at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California. (Watch it above, with Damon breaking down the movie’s new trailer.) “They had to put this giant fake stomach on me,” he said with a smile. “So I did all this work to get in shape and they put a prosthetic stomach over my stomach.”

The movie, based on the bestselling sci-fi novel by Andy Weir, takes place in the near future, when NASA starts sending astronauts to explore Mars (a real goal of the actual space program). Damon plays Mark Watney, a space pioneer left behind by his crew (played by Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, and Sebastian Stan). He’s presumed dead after a dangerous storm forces them to evacuate in a hurry, and from there Weir has to “science the s–t” out of his stay on the harsh planet to survive.

That’s where Damon’s aforementioned stomach scene comes in to play. (Spoiler!) Yahoo Movies was shown an extended peek of the beginning of the movie, when Watney is found to be alive but injured after his fellow astronauts have literally jetted off. He regains consciousness only to find a piece of equipment sticking out of his abdomen. Watney manages to make it back indoors to his Mars base but must perform surgery on himself in a cringe-inducing sequence that’s bound to sear itself in the minds of moviegoers. And that stomach — it looks real!

Director Scott collaborated with NASA specialists to create a near future that’s as realistic and scientifically sound as possible. Though, as Damon told us, filmmakers filled in the gaps when they felt it necessary. Even so, NASA experts on site at JPL informed us that ultra-thin space suits, as worn by Damon, Chastain, and the others, are really in development — just one example of how the production stayed true to real-life science.

The Martian, also starring Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover, opens nationwide Oct. 2.

Watch the new trailer for 'The Martian’ without commentary: