While most people are aware of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s extremely close friendship, many don’t seem to appreciate just how special their relationship is.
The two men, who are now in their early 50s, grew up a block and a half away from one another in Boston, Massachusetts, and were introduced through their moms when Ben was 8 years old and Matt was 10.
Matt previously revealed that he first realized Ben was “a good friend to have” when Ben bravely came to his defense during a fight at school, and their friendship became unbreakable from that moment on.
They bonded over their shared love of acting, and moved in together after leaving school — but things weren’t always smooth sailing.
You see, Matt and Ben were just two regular guys who didn’t have nepotism or free-flowing cash from their parents to help launch their Hollywood careers — in fact, they are entirely self-made, and the fact that they both managed to make it to the big time is no mean feat.
But it also wasn't a coincidence, with the two revealing just last year that they actively helped one another throughout their late teens and early 20s after deciding that one wasn’t going to make it big without the other.
This led to them opening a joint bank account, which meant that if one of them booked a job, they both benefited financially. As a result, they could both afford to go to auditions, with Ben explaining on The Bill Simmons Podcast: “We were going to help each other and be there for each other… It was like, ‘You’re not going to be alone. I’m not going to be alone. Let’s go out there and do this together.’”
“As long as one of us had money, we knew the power wasn’t going to get shut off,” Matt added. “After doing [1993's] Geronimo, I probably had 35 grand in the bank. I was like, we’re good for a year.”
In addition to using the money to go to auditions in New York, Matt and Ben would allow each other to withdraw cash to play video games and buy beer.
During this time, they were also working on their own script for a little movie that you may have heard of: Good Will Hunting. However, their lack of experience meant that writing it took them even longer than you might expect.
Admitting that they originally wrote “thousands of pages” for the movie, Matt recently revealed: “It took us forever to write that screenplay. … We were, like, unemployed broke guys.”
But the time and energy that they put into the screenplay paid off, with the script being picked up and the movie ultimately catapulting both Matt and Ben to global fame in the late ‘90s.
Ben and Matt ended up winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting in 1998. Ben was just 25 years old at the time and remains the youngest winner in that category in the award’s history.
After Good Will Hunting’s success, Matt and Ben’s respective careers took off in tremendous fashion. Matt was cast in the Bourne and Ocean's franchises, and Ben also starred in a string of hit movies before venturing into directing.
Last year, Ben directed Matt in the movie Air, which he also costarred in.
In an interview with CBS News, Ben said that showing up to work and seeing his best friend of 40 years on the set was the best professional experience of his life, sharing: “I loved coming to work every day. I love seeing Matt.”
“It was just so much fun — I don't know. It kinda felt like just us and getting to do the thing that we wanted to do,” he went on. “I did. I loved it. I loved it. I miss it every day since. It was the best, like, work experience of my life, without question.”
Ben also enjoyed spending more time with Matt’s family, who he obviously knows incredibly well. He explained: “His kids, who just came to the premiere and made me want to burst into tears because they're so beautiful and grown up and amazing. You get to be part of somebody's whole life in that way. It's been an enormous gift."
And Matt has admitted that navigating fame with his childhood friend has been incredibly “stabilizing” for him, telling People: “It’s been really helpful to check in with Ben throughout this whole surreal process over the last 25 years. I think the shock of becoming famous is so… That messed me up for a couple of years.”
"Because the whole world just starts to treat you differently. And so your subjective experience changes,” he went on. “It's like somebody rewrites your code in the Matrix, but just your code."
“So to have somebody who I've known my whole life who I can be like, 'Hey man, is this happening to you? Are you…?' And to check in with him, it was really, really helpful,” Matt concluded. “Stabilizing."
And Matt and Ben’s friendship has been back in the headlines recently thanks to a series of incidents, starting with OK magazine’s unverified report that Matt “hates the way” Ben’s wife, Jennifer Lopez, “treats his buddy.”
But just weeks later, there was no sign of tension as Jennifer and Ben sat with Matt and his wife, Luciana Barroso, at the Golden Globes. Before this, Ben was caught on camera as he sneaked over to surprise Matt at his table, and Matt’s overjoyed reaction to seeing his best friend at the swanky ceremony created a seriously adorable viral moment.
Just one week later, Matt has gone viral again after his response to being asked what his four favorite movies are resurfaced on X, previously known as Twitter.
Upon watching the brief red carpet interview, viewers couldn’t help but be endeared by the way that Matt repeatedly name-checked Ben in his answers — which was made all the more apparent by the fact that none of the other stars featured in the Letterboxd video shouted out other people.
Listing his favorite movies, Matt tells the reporter: “So I’ll say the Godfathers, one and two, as one movie, just to cheat.”
“Ben and I always loved Midnight Run, so I want to put a comedy in there,” he adds. “I was at Mann’s Chinese Theatre opening night of Pulp Fiction in 1994. On the Friday night, Ben and I were there together, it was like being at a rock concert, you know what I mean?”
“Like, that got us so fired up about what movies can do, that was definitely a highlight of my movie-going life,” Matt explains, listing Jaws as his final choice.
Reacting to the video, one person pointed out: “Matt Damon couldn’t name four movies without mentioning Ben Affleck, twice.” Somebody else echoed: “Bruh not even married couples bring each other up this often in daily conversations.”
matt damon couldn’t name 4 movies without mentioning ben affleck, twice. https://t.co/vbptQ22nPX
Another user joked: “Matt is that girl who won’t shut up about her bf and brings him at every friend gathering omfg.” One more added: “Matt Damon don’t mention Ben Affleck for a minute challenge.”
matt is that girl who won’t shut up about her bf and brings him at every friend gatherings omfg https://t.co/1lxHCj4Dmy
While somebody else concluded: “I need to get a best friend relationship like Matt and Ben pls I could cry they would find each other in every lifetime.”
I need to get a best friend relationship like matt and ben pls I could cry they would find each other in every lifetime https://t.co/ECgyX0AuOR
