Matt Damon: 'The sky's the limit for Alicia Vikander'

Matt Damon has heaped praise on his Jason Bourne co-star Alicia Vikander as a "once-in-a-generation" actress.

The 45-year-old admits Alicia, who won an Oscar for her role in The Danish Girl earlier this year (16), really impressed him with her onscreen versatility and he believes she is one of the best in the business.

"I just think of these once-in-a-generation actresses who kind of explode onto the scene and what strikes me about her is I can't see where her limits are," he told People.com.

"There's been six or seven (recent) performances and they're all really different and they're all going in different places and I don't see the boundaries yet. I'm really excited to see what she does next."

The 27-year-old Swedish star has caused a stir in Hollywood with her critically-acclaimed performances in Ex-Machina, The Danish Girl and the upcoming drama The Light Between Oceans, while Vikander is also set to star as Lara Croft in the rebooted movie version of computer game Tomb Raider.

"She's going to keep working with great people because great people all want to work with her," he continued. "In my experience, I knew a lot when I was 27, but the next 18 years were, it was nothing but fun because I was doing what I loved to do and kind of by osmosis, you get better at it because of the people you're around and working with. I don't know where she's going to go but I'm excited to see it."

And Matt is thankful director Paul Greengrass was able to secure Alicia's talents for the latest instalment in the Bourne movie series, because she is so in-demand.

"We were lucky to get her," he smiled. "Everyone in Hollywood is trying to get Alicia in their movie right now."