Let’s get one thing straight: Matt Damon is never going to run for office.

The 46-year-old Oscar winner might be politically minded and involved in clean water initiatives through his non-profit Water.org, which he started with co-founder and CEO Gary White, but he’s steering clear of politics.

“I’m not going near it,” he tells the Sun down the line from Los Angeles. “I’ll stay in my lane.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s going to stand idly by on the sidelines, especially when it comes to his work helping end the global water crisis.

To that end, Water.org has teamed up with Stella Artois on a multi-year partnership aiming to provide 3.5 million people with sustainable access to clean water by 2020.

Stella and Water.org are working together on its “Buy a Lady a Drink” campaign, which invites Canadians to purchase a branded chalice at LCBO stores in Ontario and online nationally at BuyALadyADrink.ca. Proceeds from the sale will help provide clean water to people in developing countries.

This year’s chalices feature designs by three influential artists – Lisa Mam from Cambodia, Fernando Chamerelli from Brazil and Eria Nsubuga from Uganda – in countries where Water.org provides support.

“What it’s really about is trying to spread the word so that people understand that if they buy one of these chalices for $16 bucks at an LCBO or online, you’re making a difference in somebody’s life; someone you’ll never meet, someone on the other side of the world. But you’re bringing somebody clean water,” Damon says.

So far, the partnership has helped provide over 800,000 people in the developing world with access to five years of clean water.

“It’s something that has worked well in the States and we’re hoping it will work well in Canada as well,” Damon says.

During a wide-ranging conversation, Damon reflected on his activism, battling monsters in this week’s The Great Wall and whether we’ll see another Bourne flick.

You founded Water.org in 2009. How did you become so passionate about clean water issues?

A little over 10 years ago, I went on a trip that Bono’s organization DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) had set up. They would do these trips where you would pay for it, but they would organize it and essentially it was like an extreme poverty mini course. You’d spend 10 days and go to different countries and visit clinics. Each day had a different learning focus; one day would be urban aid, one day would be water, another would be finance. You’d learn about the issues first hand, and talk to people who were working in the field and see the effects of these programs. It was a way to get educated about what the issues surrounding extreme poverty are because it’s harder to relate to for those of us that live in the West and don’t encounter them every day. So, it was on that trip that I was exposed to the water and sanitation issue and just the enormity of it was so shocking to me. Again as a westerner, the concept of lacking access to clean water was so foreign to me and to everybody that I know. Also, the fact that nobody was talking about it in the West was what first piqued my interest.

You’ve been in the public eye for 20 years. How do you come to be someone who speaks out on social issues?

I think a lot of it has to do with the way that we talked about these issues in my house when I was a kid. When I got a little older, my mom started to take me places... she took me to some rural areas in Mexico that were pretty poor. She took me to Guatemala. So before I got to college I’d seen what the Third World looked like and what the reality was for people living there. I had a glimpse of it and I understood that it was there. As I got older and I established my career and realized that I had some time to give and I had a larger sphere of influence than I ever anticipated, I realized this was a right way to spend my time.

Tell us about the partnership with Stella

Stella did this campaign with us where we tried to raise awareness about this clean water issue and they had these chalices made by artists in the country in which Water.org was working and they’re these beautiful chalices and each one tells a story... in the States lots of people bought them, we raised a bunch of money and we looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do this again.’ After doing this for two years we’ve reached over 800,000 people with clean water. In this day and age, consumers are so much smarter and this younger generation is so much more attentive to these issues than my generation – Generation X – was. These kinds of issues and campaigns matter to them and they will get activated around things like this.

Do you have any political aspirations?

No, no, not at all [laughs]. Have you seen the state of politics in my country? I like making movies.

Turning attention to your films, you’ve got a big action movie, The Great Wall, out this week. What can fans expect?

This is a big, fun popcorn movie. It’s about monsters attacking the Great Wall and humans fight the monsters. For me, it was the chance to do a movie that I would have wanted to go see when I was 12. It was just a chance to dress up and have a bow and arrow and have fun. But it also gave me an opportunity to work with my favourite Chinese director, Zhang Yimou. If you remember the Beijing Olympics, Zhang Yimou directed those, so he’s really incredible at visually choreographing things on a massive scale. It’s very epic and huge. Definitely bring your popcorn.

Manchester by the Sea is up for six Oscars at this month’s Academy Awards. You were originally supposed to star. Any regrets that you gave up the part to Casey Affleck?

I regretted it the moment that I gave it away. I regretted that I wouldn’t be able to play (Lee Chandler), but I went into that whole experience with my eyes open. I wanted to see that film get made and get made really well. I said that from the outset. We were making it and we ran out of time before The Martian. I said, ‘I’ll do it in two years,’ and then (director) Kenny (Lonergan) said, ‘But I’m ready now.’ We had always talked about Casey and the only person I could ever give this up to was Casey. I grew up with him and he’s one of the best actors that I’ve ever seen in my life and I love him. Casey and I had done one of Kenny’s plays in London about 15 years ago – that’s how Casey and I knew Kenny. So it felt right; it felt like a circling of that whole thing. The three of us will always be attached to this project; I’m still a producer on it. But it just felt absolutely right. Having been in this business for a long time, I really have come to the conclusion that the right actor always gets the part. What’s meant to be is meant to be and I can’t look at this movie – I’ve read 20 drafts of it and I’ve seen 10 cuts of it – and I can’t imagine anyone else playing that role. Casey’s just magnificent.

You’re going to be playing Linus Caldwell in Ocean’s Eight – what can you tell us about that?

I don’t think I can tell you much. I’m going to go shoot my bit in a couple of weeks, so I haven’t been on set yet and I think that’s the way they want it. I think they want it to be a secret. I’m excited to see what the women do with it. It’s a fun idea and we certainly had a great run with it. Now it’s time for the ladies to take over.

Will we see another Jason Bourne movie?

If we can figure out a good story; it’s always about that. This last one didn’t do as well as the one we did 10 years ago, so maybe people are done with the character. It would have to be a pretty incredible story to get us all back on the horse. Having said that, we all love working together and those movies are a lot of fun to make so we sure would be happy to do it.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com