Shooting Matt Damon in the Desert and Leaning Into Discomfort

It was a beautiful day to be indoors. In barren Lancaster, California, the temperature had hit the mid-90s, and the feels-like figure in my weather app topped triple digits. We were professional. We were stoic. But at a certain point, you just give in to the heat of the desert. At a certain point, you wilt a little.Matt Damon, mercifully, never did. Damon may be the least-debated pick in GQ Men of the Year history—he’s still riding the billion-dollar wave of The Odyssey, one of the great cinematic accomplishments this century. Damon was also, by some distance, the most unbothered man on that desert set, and all while being the only one wearing heavenly black tailoring (a peak-lapel Norton & Sons jacket, and glorious mohair Celine pants). It was Bourne-esque. Odyssean, even! Three decades into being a film star, Damon has familiarity with endurance, both creative and literal. In his cover story, he walks our Frazier Tharpe through the physical cost of making Christopher Nolan’s epic, up to and including a night in Scotland on which he didn’t sleep at all. The piece is a portrait of a movie star who still treats the job as a job, most of all when it is inconvenient, unfair, or uncomfortable.Discomfort has been something of a theme for me this year. I will confess that I knew 2026 would be an administrative ordeal from the moment I accepted this new role at GQ. There was a move from London to New York (including a cat, whose opinion was not consulted). There was a home to find. And there was the discovery that the land of the free has impressive disdain for a grown man with no credit score. None of it was enjoyable. All of it, I think, is good for me.All photos courtesy of Adam BaidawiI have the good fortune to work with many brilliant editors and writers. A recurring note I like to give is: Where is the tension? Without tension, there’s no story. I am not a confrontational person, but I find confrontation on the page irresistible. I want you to stumble, in every issue of GQ, onto something uncomfortable, or uncomfortably new. A magazine that agrees with you from cover to cover is a magazine that you have already read. And I would hate to do that to you.This issue does not let you off lightly. After some life advice from an honest-to-God astronaut who went deeper into space than anyone that’s ever lived, you’ll read about Chris Rock’s unvarnished thoughts on divorce, discomfort, and reclamation, and Andrew Garfield’s very real anxieties in playing Sam Altman, the complicated man who’s been described as the Oppenheimer of our time. From there, we hang out with the men risking the unknown to get hot on peptides, which is, for better or worse, the defining male-vanity story of 2026.A few months ago I started putting my email address in these letters (adam@gq.com). You’ve been generous. You’ve been thoughtful. A handful of you have been unhinged. But one note showed up way more than I thought it would: NO POLITICS, PLEASE.Hm!I understand the impulse. I know These Modern Times are stressful, and wouldn’t it be nice if GQ were a place of apolitical tranquility? Alas. GQ has always taken men seriously as full human beings, and full human beings can handle tough conversations, opposing viewpoints, and a little gray area. There’s nothing noble about steering clear of the uncomfortable.Which brings me to our special package on Cornell, anchored by a dispatch from campus by Savannah Sobrevilla. It is about an alleged sexual assault. It is also about the men on the sidelines of sexual assault. Some of the young men we meet through the story are students who are earnestly and inelegantly trying to grapple with how serious the alleged crimes are, with the crude and cruel culture that surrounds them, and with what role, exactly, they play in exacerbating that culture—or could play in diminishing it. It’s not easy reading, but not everything should be. ✦PRODUCTION CREDITS:Photography by Richard BurbridgeStyling by George CortinaHair by Johnnie Sapong using Leonor GreylSkin by Mark CarrasquilloTailoring by Susanna BadalyanSets by Heath Mattioli for Frank RepsProduction by Kendal Steensen and Felix Cadieu for NEIGHBORSA version of this story originally appeared in the December 2026 issue of GQ with the title “A Paean to Discomfort.”