Resurfaced Clip Of Matt Damon Talking About How A Retail Worker Refused To Let Him Pay For Underwear Sparks Fame Debate

No matter your profession, everyone dreams of "making it."

Generally speaking, the term refers to financial stability of some kind, ideally when you no longer have to worry about money one way or another.

For actors, however, making it could have all sorts of different meanings.

These might include no longer needing to work a side hustle, making acting your only source of income, winning an Oscar, an Emmy, or a Tony (or all three), or seeing your face on an enormous billboard.

For Matt Damon, however, it took a pair of Calvin Klein underpants to realize he had "made it" in Hollywood.

In a recently resurfaced interview for Elle magazine from 2023, done while promoting the film Air alongside frequent collaborator and lifelong best friend Ben Affleck, both the actors and Academy-Award-Winning screenwriters were asked the first time they felt they "made it."

For Damon, it was not appearing opposite Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza, or winning his Oscar alongside Affleck for Good Will Hunting, but instead, it came down to an unusual visit to a Calvin Klein store.

Damon shared that prior to Good Will Hunting, he owned one pair of boxer briefs, owing to the fact that they were not as popular in the late 1990s and were also expensive for the then-struggling actor:

"I think I had one pair of boxer briefs."

"They were less popular back then, you either had boxers or briefs."

"They were expensive, so I only had one pair."

"But I always looked forward to doing my laundry because I knew that was the day I was going to get to wear my boxer briefs."

The success of Good Will Hunting finally afforded Damon the opportunity to fill his underwear drawer with 20 more pairs of boxer briefs, which he was ready to purchase at a Calvin Klein store:

However, when the time came to check out, the salesperson at Calvin Klein reportedly refused to let him pay for the underwear, owing to his newfound celebrity status.

"A salesperson came running out and was insisting that she give them to me."

Enticing as free merchandise seems, Damon found the moment anticlimactic, as he was ready—and proud—to pay for his beloved boxer briefs, but the store clerk remained resolute in her refusal.

"I said 'no, no, no, you don't understand I really need to buy these, this is a rite of passage for me.'"

"And she wouldn't let me buy them."

"She said, 'I might get fired if they hear you had to come in and buy underwear."

"This is the weirdest thing, I finally have money and you're not letting me buy anything in your store, you're trying to give it to me."

"And I think that was probably the moment I realized things were different."

As the three-year-old interview started making the rounds on X (formerly Twitter), Damon's story was met with a somewhat divided reception.

Many found the fact that it was buying underwear that made Damon feel like he "made it" endearing, finding his response humble, genuine, even relatable:

Others didn't like that a celebrity, who could presumably afford many things nicer than boxer briefs, was being given free merchandise, when many are forced to save for months:

Regardless of how this story of free underwear made us feel, there is no doubt Damon has certainly "made it."

Damon has remained one of Hollywood's most potent box office draws, currently playing Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster The Odyssey, the director's third film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.