Matt Damon has blamed the "ruthless" and "uncertain" Hollywood movie industry for taking him away from fatherhood "more than [he'd] like".

The 55-year-old star has four daughters - Alexia, 26, Isabella, 19, Gia, 17 and Stella, 15 - with his wife Luciana Barroso, 49, and he is "really trying" to spend more time with his children nowadays.

He told GQ magazine: "I think about it a lot, especially as my kids are getting older: really trying to be here now.

"And it's hard for me to do that. And I think maybe that has to do with my own nature.

"It also has to do with this career where you're always trying to figure out what's ahead because it's such an uncertain business and a pretty ruthless one."

The Oppenheimer star believes the uncertainty of Hollywood has "conspired" to take him away from family time over the years.

He added: "Those kinds of things have conspired to, I think, maybe take me out of where I am, more than I'd like."

But Damon is more selective about his roles nowadays, because he doesn't have a "young person's engine of needing to prove something".

He said: "I know Clint Eastwood said it, 'You get tired of seeing yourself on camera.'

"You're like, 'It's somebody else's turn.'

"I think that's another way of saying you want to be really intentional about what you take and do.

"And I remember George Clooney saying to me years ago, I think he was talking about Paul Newman - in those years, Paul Newman would take a role like The Verdict and then he wouldn't work for three or four years, and then he'd do another one and really wait for those great roles.

"And there's less of that kind of young person's engine of needing to prove something and more about, like, accepting work and doing it on your terms and doing it as precisely and as well as you can."

In 2024, Matt told how he and his The Instigators co-star Casey Affleck - who has sons Indiana, 22, and Atticus, 18 - were surprised just how quickly their children were growing up.

Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, Matt said at the time: "I don't think we swap a lot of fatherly advice. I mean, we do talk about it, but it's more in the sense of just marveling at how quickly it's passing.

"It's like suddenly your kid's going to college, and it's at a blistering pace."