Tuesday, 12 December 2006

Matt Damon: Fatherhood 'defies description'

Actor overwhelmed by being a daddy

Matt Damon and wife Luciana welcomed daughter Isabella six months ago, but the actor still has a hard time describing what it's like to be a dad.

"It's great, great. That's been just amazing," Damon said Friday at a press event for his movie The Good Shepherd. "It defies description, actually. I don't really know how to talk about it because I don't really know – I feel like I got made a member of a club that I didn't know existed."

Isabella is the first child for Damon, 36; Luciana, 30, has an 8-year-old daughter, Alexia, from a previous marriage.

"I didn't think that this would happen to me," Damon said. "Other people were always showing me baby pictures or trying to hand me the baby, and I was like, 'Get that thing away from me. I don't want to touch your kid. Give me a break.' But I'm totally into it now."

At first, he said, "I was kind of excited for my daughter to be 2. I was excited for her to start talking and walking and toddling around hanging out, but I didn't realize how much personality little people have right off the bat. So it's just been fun."

His favorite activity with his daughter, he said, is making her laugh. "You do this thing where you can either give her (a raspberry) on the stomach or if you sort of act like you're going to munch her underarm, and she laughs like a little machine gun. And it's like I could do it forever."