Matt Damon says 2011 film ‘Contagion’ predicted pandemic as he reveals stepdaughter had COVID-19

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Matt Damon revealed that his stepdaughter got the coronavirus while going to school in New York City at the onset of the worldwide pandemic. 

The actor, 49, appeared for an interview on Ireland’s Spin 1038 "Fully Charged" radio show where he revealed the news of his kid's illness. The actor has been stuck in Ireland, specifically the small Dublin suburb of Dalkey, for several weeks after travel restrictions took effect while he was there to shoot a movie. 

Speaking to hosts Graham O’Toole and Nathan O’Reilly, Damon revealed that his stepdaughter Alexia, 21, was at school in New York City and had the coronavirus along with her roommates a few weeks ago. Alexia is the daughter of Damon’s wife, Luciana Barroso, from a previous relationship.

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"Our oldest daughter is in college. Obviously that’s been shut down. But she’s in NYC and she had COVID really early on along with her roommates and got through it fine," he revealed to the hosts. "So… I shouldn't say our whole family is together. Of our four kids, we’ve got the three younger ones and our oldest one, we’ll reunite with her at the end of the month. But everybody’s OK."

Matt Damon revealed that his stepdaughter had the coronavirus. (Dominique Charriau/WireImage)

Damon’s stepdaughter appears to be out of the woods in terms of her battle with COVID-19. As a result, the actor noted that he’s relieved to be able to reunite with her in Los Angeles in an environment where people finally understand what they’re dealing with.

"Obviously for Luci’s mom and my mom, it’s scary for that generation," he told the hosts. "I think we’ve all got the message now. Everybody is doing the isolation and social distancing and hand washing and kind of everything we can to mitigate this but it’s frightening, certainly, for our parents." 

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The hosts couldn’t help but bring up the parallels of the coronavirus pandemic to a 2011 movie Damon starred in called "Contagion" in that depicted what turned out to be a surprisingly accurate response to a global pandemic. In the movie, Damon plays a father who loses his wife to the illness and must protect his only daughter from it at all costs. 

"Anybody who said you couldn’t predict this, I mean, just look at ‘Contagion.’ Ten years ago we made a movie just talking to experts and asking them how this would look and kind of how this would go down," Damon said. 

The actor concluded by noting that he hopes the COVID-19 pandemic will prepare the world for similar outbreaks that may come in the future and be more severe. 

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"It’s upsetting, the whole thing is just… it’s tragic, you know? And sad," he told the hosts. "I hope some good can come out of it. I hope that. Luckily, this isn’t as lethal as it might have been, so maybe this is a really good dry run for the big one that might come. Because these things do come along every few decades… best to be ready for it."