Screen hunk Matt Damon says it was “liberating”

Screen hunk Matt Damon says it was “liberating” to pad out his action hero body for new movie The Informant.

The screen hunk – known for his usually lean, mean physique – gained almost two stone (30lbs) by gobbling junk food.

He needed to acquire an impressive gut to play a plump whistle-blower in the newly-released comedy flick.

And the Bourne star, 38, says his wife Luciana had no choice but to like it.

“I made my wife appreciate it. She was a good sport. I paraded around. I loved my body,” he told USA Today.

“I walked around, danced – dancing with a belly like that was fun.

“My stepdaughter loved it, too. She kept poking me in the stomach, laughing.”

Despite his brief chubby spell, the father-of-two, whose last film was the 2007 action blockbuster The Bourne Ultimatum, is in huge demand.

He has Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, about Nelson Mandela’s attempt to unite his country through rugby, out in December.

And in March, Damon hunts for weapons of mass destruction in the Iraq war thriller Green Zone, from Paul Greengrass.

“I know it’s a cliche, but I really do feel lucky, and the work I’m getting the chance to do, it’s great,” he told the newspaper.