Matt Damon Reveals He Talked Himself Out of Starring in 'Ted'
The actor explains he passed on the role of John, later played by Mark Wahlberg, because he overthought the script and regrets not taking the part.
Headline and summary written by an AI model from the linked articles; not reviewed by a person. How this was made
First reported by Deadline, 2h 14m ahead of the next publisher · who breaks stories first
The odds
Each tick is a source publishing on this story · 1 more published before price tracking began
Price data
| Time | Chance of yes |
|---|---|
| now | 95% |
| 5 Nov, 18:28 UTC | 95% |
The story so far
4 publishers have covered this in 4 articles since 5 Nov 2026. Deadline published first, on 5 November at 18:16 UTC; The A.V. Club followed 2h 15m later. The most recent article, from Movies | Hollywood Reporter, appeared on 5 November at 23:13 UTC.
Outlets reporting it: Variety (major outlet), Movies | Hollywood Reporter (major outlet), Deadline, The A.V. Club.
2 prediction markets price this story:
- Matt Damon — the market puts it at 95%, with $2k traded in the last 24 hours, closing 31 Dec 2027. The market resolves to Yes if Matt Damon receives a nomination for Best Actor at the 99th Academy Awards. Otherwise, it resolves to No. Readers often mistake this outcome for whether he wins the award rather than just being nominated.
- Matt Damon — the market puts it at 19%, with $959 traded in the last 24 hours, closing 31 Dec 2027. The market resolves to Yes if Matt Damon wins the Best Actor award at the 99th Academy Awards. It resolves to No if he does not win that specific award. Readers often mistake the deadline for the ceremony date rather than the official announcement time.
Odds are the market's probability that the outcome happens, updated every few minutes. They are information about what traders expect, not a forecast we make and not investment advice.
How it unfolded
Every source in the order it published, with the odds on Matt Damon at that moment. A dash means the source published before we started tracking prices.
- DeadlineMatt Damon On Why He Passed On ‘Ted’: “I Overthought It And Talked Myself Out Of It”—
- The A.V. ClubMatt Damon "overthought" Ted and puff-puff-passed on it95%
- VarietyMatt Damon Nearly Starred in ‘Ted’ but ‘I Talked Myself Out of It’: ‘I Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’95%
- Movies | Hollywood ReporterMatt Damon Reveals Why He Passed on Starring in ‘Ted’95%
- Current odds95%
Sources
Every article we clustered into this story. Headlines link to the publisher.
- Matt Damon Reveals Why He Passed on Starring in ‘Ted’ Movies | Hollywood Reporter ·
- Matt Damon Nearly Starred in ‘Ted’ but ‘I Talked Myself Out of It’: ‘I Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’ Variety ·
- Matt Damon "overthought" Ted and puff-puff-passed on it The A.V. Club
- Matt Damon On Why He Passed On ‘Ted’: “I Overthought It And Talked Myself Out Of It” Deadline
Related prediction markets
Linked by software because they are about the same subject. Most ask a different question from the one this story reports, so read each market's own question. How often the link is right
- Kalshi Matt Damon 95%
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- Kalshi Matt Damon 19% −1
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In this story
- Matt Damon
- Mark Wahlberg
- Seth MacFarlane