Matt Damon regrets rejecting a role in Ted.

The 56-year-old actor has revealed that he was offered a lead role in Ted, the 2012 comedy movie - but he ultimately declined the opportunity, before Mark Wahlberg accepted the part.

Asked if he regrets declining any roles, Matt told GQ: "I never like to say that, because I don't want to live with the regret, but I can tell you that I passed on Ted, and I've never had this experience where I laughed so hard reading a script.

"I literally took it to dinner and was reading parts of it out to my friends at dinner. And then I just got too clever by half. I don't know what I was thinking. I was like, Well, maybe the teddy bear's actually the best part...

"So I overthought it and I talked myself out of it. And because it shot in Boston, it would've been a chance for me to be home -- my father's passed away now, and I look back and I go, 'Man, that would've been six months back [home].'

"But, again, the right actor got the part. Mark's great, and the movie's great, and I wouldn't have made it any better."

Matt is a huge fan of comedy movies, but he's rarely considered for such roles.

The actor explained that comedy films are often perceived to be an economic risk, observing that they "don't travel well" outside of the US.

He said: "They're really hard to do. And I don't read a lot [of them]. I don't think people think of me for comedies a lot. But I love them, and I love watching them, and I love doing them if I can get my hands on one. But they're few and far between. I think because they don't travel well. They're harder to get made because you really have to get all your money back in America.

"Comedy is so cultural. So the margin for error, I think, is smaller, which is what's so great when you see a great one."