An underrated gem (Picture: DreamWorks Pictures)

All teens of the mid-noughties will have watched Eurotrip at some point.

It’s the low-brow teen comedy that told the tale of four American friends embarking on a European odyssey before heading off to college – and it’s a far better film than its 46 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe.

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But one of the film’s stand out moments comes in the form of an early cameo from Matt Damon as the angry singer of a punk band who brazenly sings about having sex with the girlfriend of lead character Scott Thomas behind his back.

Here’s that song, in case you’d forgotten. SCOTTY DOESN’T KNOW.




Anyhow, Matt Damon has explained how him, an actual A-lister and Hollywood leading man, ended up appearing in a low-brow, low-budget comedy.

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It turns out that he was filming The Brothers Grimm in Prague with director Terry Gilliam and co-star Heath Ledger at roughly the same time, and agreed to the cameo as a favour for the film’s writers – who he just so happened to go to college with.

Here’s his full answer, which he disclosed during a Reddit AMA.

So EuroTrip was written by three guys I went to college with, Alec Shaffer, Jeff Berg, and Dave Mandell. And the three of them are three of the best comedy writers in the world. In fact, Alec and Jeff when we moved out to LA, we had this running joke where we had one bottle of champagne that I think they sent to us when we sold Good Will Hunting, or no, we sent it to them first because they had been hired on Seinfeld, so we would pass this bottle back and forth, we never opened it, but it was just to congratulate each other at these milestone moments in our careers. So we kind of came up together. I was in Prague shooting The Brothers Grimm, we were in rehearsals, and I had a wig in that movie, and so Alec and Dave and Jeff were making EuroTrip and they said “Will you come play this, you know, Howard [nb, we think they mean Henry] Rollins kind of insane, bad version of a suburban, you know, punk band guy?” And I said “Yea, I’m in Prague”. So I showed up and I’m sitting there, and I’m like “I’m wearing a wig, just shave my head, let’s just go for it.” and we did it, and put a bunch of piercings all over. And “Scotty Doesn’t Know”, the song, was actually written by one of my college roommates brothers, and in the band, one of my college roommates is actually in that back up band, Jason, is playing guitar in that group. So it was kind of a family affair.’

So there we have it.

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