Matt Damon has revealed how working with British filmmaker Ridley Scott is a "lifelong" dream.

The Bourne star finally got his wish when the pair collaborated on outer space film The Martian, which also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig and Jessica Chastain.

The Oscar-winning actor said: "I don't take too much calculus when I'm taking on a movie. If I want to tell the story, if I want to spend half a year of my life telling the story and if I feel the director is great, and I'm excited to work with the director, then I do it.

"In this case, I did pause. I went, 'Wow, if this thing goes down in flames, this is all on me.' But it was such a great story and such an optimistic, uplifting story and then there was Ridley Scott. And that's a lifelong dream for me."

Damon, 44, said how Scott's early films inspired him.

"Alien and Blade Runner were formative experiences in my life. They changed my life, those movies," the actor explained.

"Subsequent to those films, he's made some remarkable movies all over the spectrum from Gladiator to Thelma And Louise to Black Hawk Down. He's just so versatile and still turning out great stuff, so it was thrilling to work with him."

He added: "To show up at work every morning and see this guy who's still doing it, and still excited about it, it reminded me of working with Clint Eastwood years ago. He's in his 80s and he's got more energy than anybody and that's what it was like with Ridley."

In The Martian, Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, who is left stranded on Mars after he is presumed dead by his crew.

The star joked about how this appears to be a running theme, after his brief appearance in Interstellar.

"I said that to Ridley! I did that cameo in Interstellar, which was great because I always wanted to work with Chris (Nolan)," he said.

"I did the cameo and then I took a year and a half off work basically. We moved to California and I wanted to be around for my kids, and then the next movie that comes along, I'm stranded on a planet by myself. But it was Ridley Scott, so I wasn't about to say no."

Damon, who has four children with wife Luciana, also revealed how his kids got excited when they visited him on set.

"In Budapest, we shot on the biggest sound stage in the world. It's just massive so the kids walked around on all the Mars dirt. They thought it was really cool," he said.

The actor is set to reprise his role as rogue agent Jason Bourne in the fifth instalment of the action series, which would reunite him with another British director, Paul Greengrass.

"It's really exciting. It's exciting because Paul Greengrass is doing it. I mean, that's the reason for me to do it is that he's back."

The Martian opens nationwide on September 30.