Turning 96 this year, Clint Eastwood is one of Hollywood’s most legendary living actors and directors.

Modern stars dream of working with him and this was no less the case for Matt Damon.

The pair first collaborated on 2009’s Invictus, about Morgan Freeman’s Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.

Appearing on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, Damon shared: “I worked with [Eastwood] twice and the first time was Invictus.

“So I was playing a South African Rugby player and that’s a really tough accent to do.”

Damon spent six months working with a dialect coach on his South African accent. When it came to Day One on the Invictus set, he was very excited to “work with one of my heroes”. Ahead of filming, the actor said he had a number of different ways of doing the scene. But after the very first take, director Eastwood gruffly said: “Cut, print, move on.’” Damon recalled: “I go, ‘Hang on, hang on boss. Wanna do another one?’”