Actor who resembles Damon relishing his own successes
Jesse Plemons gets recognized everywhere — but not as Jesse Plemons.
He doesn’t entirely see it, but the general consensus says the 29-year-old actor looks like Matt Damon.
“The bad part of all of this is the nicknames,” a wincing Plemons said. “People have to have something to hashtag.”
Yet the comments aren’t necessarily better when Plemons is recognized as himself, given his role as a crazed meth addict on “Breaking Bad.”
“I guess I didn’t really think about what it was going to feel like being recognized as Todd the psycho child-killer,” he said. “I’m always amazed when people look at me with actual fear in their eyes.”
Perhaps the actor will one day erase the memory of Todd the psycho with some of his subsequent work. He has recently been seen as Washington Post lawyer Roger Clark in the Oscar-nominated “The Post” and as a U.S. Army lieutenant in “Hostiles.” He also has a key role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.
In the ensemble comic thriller “Game Night,” opening nationwide on Friday, Plemons co-stars as Gary, a recently divorced cop who is creepy enough that his neighbors (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) have stopped inviting him to their regular game night. He keeps an eye on them, though, and notices when they become involved in a dangerous challenge to solve what they think is a faux murder mystery.
“I feel badly for Gary, who is really a sweetheart but comes across as a bit of a creep,” Plemons said.
“The Irishman,” due next year, centers on a mob hitman (De Niro) recalling his possible involvement in the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).
“I play Jimmy’s adopted son,” Plemons said, “a kid who grows up in a family that’s complicated, although Hoffa is a pretty nice dad to him.”
He owes his chance to work with heavyweights Scorsese, Pacino and De Niro, he said, to the film’s casting director.
“I sent her some acting on tape, and she ended up rearranging my reel in a way she thought Scorsese would like.”
Soon, Plemons was on a plane to New York.
“I can’t even begin to describe walking into that room to meet with Scorsese and De Niro. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life because I respect both of them so much. I was just trying not to look like I was freaking out on the inside.”
Plemons was born in Dallas and grew up in a small town outside Waco. As a toddler, he was so outgoing that his mother decided to see whether her baby could be a star.
“My mom heard about an open casting call for a CocaCola commercial when I was
2 , and I ended up getting it,” Plemons said.
When he chose to keep acting, his parents fully supported him, he said.
His breakthrough came when, at 18, he was cast as football star Landry Clarke on “Friday Night Lights” (200610). That TV role led to work in movies such as “Paul” (2011), “Battleship” (2012), “The Master” (2012) and “Bridge of Spies” (2015).
He continued to mix in TV work, including “Fargo” (2015), in which he portrayed the husband of Peggy Blumquist, played by Kirsten Dunst. The actress is now his fiancee and pregnant with their first child.
“Now that I’ve worked with Scorsese, Spielberg, De Niro, Pacino and so many greats, I’ll be retiring very soon,” Plemons joked.
“The truth is, all this still doesn’t quite make sense to me. It’s beyond anything I could ever imagine.”