Matt Damon and Tom Holland: The Pizza Interview | NYT Cooking

Cleaning a cheese grater is an absolute nightmare. Yes, it is. I'd rather grate my face. Do you like to cook? I love to cook. I love to eat. I'm an extraordinary eater. What's your favorite pizza place? Did you ever go to that pizza place in Favignon when we were shooting? I did not eat any gluten. Oh, you didn't, did you? No. Are you back on gluten? Nope. No? No. Are we doing gluten-free today? We're going to do a bait and switch. I'm going to make a pizza that everyone here can enjoy, and then they have a gluten-free one for me. Do you believe pineapple belongs on pizza? For me, no. I don't like sweet with my savory when it comes to pizza. I like it. I probably wouldn't order it, but I do like it. Throw back a giant piece of prosciutto. I remember my brother Sam nearly choked to death on some of that. Yeah. Mum, like, put her hand in his mouth and, like, it felt like he was pulling it forever out of his mouth. That actually stressed me out. I was going to say. I am Matt Damon, and... I am Tom Holland. And we're here with The New York Times making pizza. Honestly, it's like the moment someone tells me they're taking a picture of me, I forget how to just be a human being. I am. I'm like... We're going to do more photos, so... Oh, great. There are a lot of different ways we could go. This is just about every topping you can imagine. I'm curious about the pasta. You put pasta on pizza? I'm going to just see what happens naturally, I think. My go-to as a struggling actor was one of those dominoes, thin crust, pepperoni, green pepper and onion. So I'm tempted to just do that. Do you remember the first steps? Yeah. He said, be generous. Generous. Liberal. With the flour. So you don't like cooking? It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't do it. When I was a kid, my mother made my brother and I each cook one night a week. Oh, that's fun. I think that put me off it. Oh, OK. Well, there you go. Who's usually the cook in your house? My wife is not bad. She's pretty good. Seamless is a wonderful option. What's seamless? It's a delivery service. Oh, no way. Wow, I've got a real thin bit in there. Oh, yeah, mine's bubbling in the middle. That can't be good. I don't want to pretend like I cook all the time. I also, in England, we have Deliveroo, which I'm a frequent user of. I am trying to cook more and more. It's one of my, like, things I'm trying to do this year. I see one of these holes developing in my pizza. I'm not happy about it. See, I kind of have a fail-safe, which is no matter what I do, mine's getting swapped out for a gluten-free pizza, so... Now you've got one of those... What were those things called? Arabies? Those frisbees with the hole in the middle? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just ruined mine. I could wear it like a bib. Right, I guess I'm going to have to start again. I didn't know till a couple of years ago that I had that gluten intolerance. I feel so much better without eating it. But it's a bummer. Like, I love bread, I love pasta, I love pizza, but it's worth it, ultimately. I thought you were just doing that for the movie. I was. I was, and then I... And then you realised how much better you felt? Yeah. Are you flipping it over and over? I don't know what I'm doing, to be honest, but that looks horrendous. Yeah, this is pretty bad. There's people furious at our pizza-making skills. We've got to bring in a stuntman. Have you ever worked in the food service industry? I worked at a place called Croissant du Jour with Ben Affleck. It was, like, mostly baked goods, croissants, sandwiches, that kind of stuff. I went to the pot wash in a pub. That's what you guys call a dishwasher? Pot wash? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't last very long. That feels better. You going to go cheese first, bro? Yeah, cheese then toppings. You ain't going to put tomato on it? Huh? Don't you put... Are you putting a sauce over it? I guess you put the sauce, of course, then the cheese. That's what I was... Yeah. So I'm now one-handed. Hold on, I got this. There's spoons right here. I'll spoon-schmoon. I was thinking of, like, a piece of toast. I was like, what do you make? Can I assume you've never cooked with each other before? No. It's actually how we bonded before we started the movie. This is what Nolan had us do. I put way too much sauce on this. Yeah, so did I, but I think that's going to work in our favour somehow. I have faith. Are you scooping it up and putting it back in? I'm not so sure, but I'm really hungry, and we have a long flight tonight, so I'm going to take this with me. All right, I'm putting on some mozzarella cheese here. And that looks like kind of a sharp cheddar, which I'm not afraid to double that up a little bit. Are you a fan of pre-grated cheese? I am when it comes to taco night, because that is a pain in the ass. Yeah, because we don't really do that in the UK. Like, in the UK, you buy, like, a block of cheese. And grate it. And you grate it yourself. But when I came to America's First, I was like, that is so handy. And also cleaning a cheese grater is an absolute nightmare. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. I'd rather grate my face. When we were filming the movie, we shot in this place called Favignana. It's a really gorgeous island just off the coast of Sicily. And there was this great pizzeria there. I ate there every single night that we were in Favignana. And they made this, like, fiery pepperoni pizza. Fortunately, I was not cutting out gluten while I was making that movie. And I ate it every single night. But it was spicy, so I'm going to have to add something a little spicier than... It's got a little kick to it. It's got a little secondary... Jon Bernthal and I did Hot Ones the other day. Oh, yeah, man. Now, I fully vomited on camera. On camera? A full time. Like, I'm standing there, we're laughing, having a good time. I told you when I did it, I threw up. Oh, did you? Off camera. Oh, mate. And it was also pure milk. Oh, oh. Because I'd been nailing the milk. And I was like, we're not here to talk about Hot Ones. If you were away from home for 20 years, what's the first thing you'd eat? Well, it depends on where I was away from home and what kind of food they had available there. Because the question would really be what I miss the most at home. I was on an odyssey, so I'm on a boat. I'm eating fish. I'd probably eat a good steak when I got home. My brother, Sam, makes this dish called a Chicken Veronique, which is like a shredded chicken in a creamy sauce. And then he, like, hand peels green grapes and roasts them. And then he serves it on like a dauphinois potato bottom. That sounds fantastic. Unbelievable. That's what I would have. Odysseus returns home in disguise after 20 years and subtly signals to his loved ones his true identity. If you had to do this, how would your loved ones know it was actually you? Like, one of my daughters, whenever I see her, she goes, you know, hey, chat, how you doing? And I go, hey, chat. So I could walk by her and just say, hey, chat. And she'd know who I was. I'd probably just go see my mum. You know, I've been seeing those videos recently. I've seen them, they, like, get an NFL team to sit in an auditorium. And then they get all the mums to stand up at the front and turn their back to the room. And the kids have to, like, call their mum in a funny voice. And it's like 99% of the time the mum will turn around when it's their son. Oh, really? It's actually kind of amazing. So I'd probably just go see my mum and she would know immediately. You must have the most wholesome Instagram feed of anybody. If you were to show each other around your hometowns, where's the first place you'd eat? Oh, boy, I wonder if all of them exist anywhere. There's a place in central square Cambridge called the Middle East Cafe, which is great. Joseph and Nabil, shout out to those guys. They own it, they've been there forever. And that's a great spot, I would take them there. There's a pub in Kingston called The Coconut. It's a Thai restaurant. You can bring your dogs there. Oh, nice. And people just let their dogs off, so it becomes like a dog free-for-all. Wally is a lady that runs the pub, and it's like a bit of a family favourite of ours. Are we going to cook these now? Oh, wait, there's garlic. Let's throw some garlic on here. Ooh, some little garlic crisps. Throw some garlic crisps on there. We make the flight even more enjoyable. I put one solitary piece of pineapple in the middle of mine. So that you know it's yours? Yeah. Ooh. That's not working at all. Oh, wait, it's stuck. Can somebody just look at that? You've got to get a shot of that. Everything came off the pizza. That has become now very like a pizza you'd get in a box. Yes. At a 7-Eleven is what that has become. Without a doubt. Very quickly. Oh, you've lost everything. I've lost everything from the top. You've got one piece of pepper left. Oh, my God. Right, I'm ready. Catastrophe. I'm going at the bottom. Oh, it's hot in there. Oh, like a pro. Oh, Tom Holland, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen. All right, quick run through. There you go. I think my dough was so wet, it just absorbed everything. Wow. All right. There you go. That is a hot mess. Woo. All right. What do you mean by feed it? You have to keep it alive by continuing to do it. You can see all the people, too, who fed it so far at the kitchen. Anyone we know? Look at this. You should. Oh, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I bet they're good cooks. Yeah. I've been to one of Jake's Sunday dinners. You want to go flour or water? I'll go water, pal. I hope you become the sourest of sourdough starters. You can do it. Yeah? Start stirring. No, I was talking to the sourdough. We believe in you. Yeah. We want you to grow and feed so many people, make so many people happy. Just persevere. Persevere. Every time you get fed, just gobble it up. I love the way you're holding me. I know. I'm Tom Holland, and I sell bread. Here we go. If the cast of The Odyssey owned a restaurant, what would everyone's role be? We'd have to put Chris on the door. Well, I might put you as the maitre d'. Yeah? Yeah, I would want you to be the face of the restaurant. Welcoming people in. Welcome. Yeah. Clearly, I'd be washing dishes, because I would not be cooking. But you could run the business, though. Imagine, like, you and Ben, you could run... Oh, he's not in The Odyssey. He's not in The Odyssey, but I could call him for advice. Exactly. Let's see, where would you put Bernthal? If it were in a bad neighbourhood, you'd want Bernthal at the door. Yeah. For sure. That's absolutely right. Chris maybe gives me the vibes that he would be a good baker for some reason. Aha. So you're putting him on dessert? Yeah. All right. I like it. Oh, Annie. Where do we put Annie? Is she into cooking? I think she is. OK. I think she might be our chef. She could be head chef. Yeah. Or bartender. Oh, Charlize. Charlize would be a good bartender. I'd put Charlize at the bar. Hamesh would be on dishes with me. Mm-hm. Zendaya. Oh, our pizzas are burning! Hot pizza. That's beautiful. Look at that. And the too much sauce only resulted in a little puddle in the middle. But that's fine. It's a little... Just made a little soup. That was stuck at the end, huh? All right. That looks sad. That looks more like a calzone. How do you feel about them, though? Um... Yeah. I'm a little disappointed with how mine, like, crisped up, you know? Like, the edges have gone really dark, but I'm kind of lacking some of that crispiness in the pepperoni. But maybe that's because I basically made a soup. Now, my question is, would you like some of my gluten-free pizza? Because it looks beautiful. I was actually expecting you to do much better than this. I thought I was going to nail it. Your gluten-free pizza, that looks fantastic. That looks like my, you know, the pizza from the early 90s that I would get from Domino's. If you were a food dish, what would you be? And can you answer for each other? I would say you're a fillet... I can't remember the word. My brain's gone blank. Filet mignon. That's what I'm trying to say. Or T-bone steak. I'd say... I'd say prime rib. Like, fantastic cut. Delivers on its promise. You can count on it. I think you'd be this kind of meat. Here's the kind of steak you'd be. Here we go. Oh, I've got a nice crunch throughout. That's good. I always say to myself I should buy a pizza cutter. Not that I make pizza at home, but where I get my pizza from in London, and if I get it delivered, they don't cut the pizza. They don't cut it all the way? They don't cut it at all. And every time I'm like, just go out and buy a pizza cutter. You're going eight pieces, huh? Can I have this? Yeah, nice. I'm actually chuffed. That's happy in English. Yeah. Now that is a good looking pizza. That ain't too bad. No, I mean this. So when I was making my pizza, what I was trying to do was go with a thinner crust. I like that, man. Yeah, this looks great. Oh, that's so good. How is it? Hot. Yeah, it's actually really tasty. This is delicious, yeah. Does it taste like the one you're trying to recreate? No. That place in Favignano is probably one of the best pizzas I've ever had. Really? Yeah. When we shot in Favignano. That is so hot. Favignano is this little town, but we got there off season, and the people in the town opened up their restaurant, and opened basically the town up because it's so small and our crew is so big that we kind of had the run of the town for the first few weeks. It was really lovely. It was awesome. Does anyone want a piece? You didn't seem very convinced then. Your face was a little bit like, nah, we'll let someone else make the pizza. Thank you to the New York Times. Sorry about this pizza to whoever's going to eat it, but this was a lot of fun. And the movie, The Odyssey, comes out on July 17th.