So far as Hollywood friendships go, it doesn’t get far more actual than Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
The 2 stars grew up a block and a half away from each other in Boston. They had been launched by their mothers for the primary time within the early Nineteen Eighties when Ben was 8 and Matt was 10.
After years as informal acquaintances, they finally turned finest buddies at highschool because of their shared love of drama. And by the mid-’90s, the 2 had moved in collectively and began writing a script for a film titled Good Will Searching.
In fact, we now know that because the traditional movie that shot the pair to immediate stardom, incomes them their first Oscars for Greatest Authentic Screenplay in 1998 — and the remainder is historical past.
However earlier than they made it to the Academy Awards stage, issues weren’t all the time plain crusing for Ben and Matt.
In actual fact, the duo revealed in a brand new joint interview that they had been so quick on money of their teenagers that they put any cash they earned right into a shared checking account to assist their respective careers.
“It was uncommon, however we wanted the cash for auditions,” Matt mentioned throughout an look on The Invoice Simmons Podcast this week.
He went on to name it “a bizarre factor looking back,” earlier than Ben took over to elucidate the candy reasoning behind the choice.
“We had been going to assist one another and be there for one another,” he mentioned, making it clear that one wasn’t going to make it huge with out the opposite. “It was like, ‘You’re not going to be alone. I’m not going to be alone. Let’s go on the market and do that collectively.’”
Offering just a little extra perception into how the association truly labored, Matt defined that anytime one in all them booked a job, they’d deposit all their earnings into the shared account to be able to fund future auditions for them each.
“So long as one in all us had cash we knew the facility wasn’t going to get shut off,” he mentioned. “After doing [1993’s] Geronimo I most likely had 35 grand within the financial institution. I used to be like, we’re good for a yr.”
Nonetheless, the shared account didn’t come with out a lot of strict tips — even when they didn’t all the time keep on with them.
“You had been allowed to go to [auditions in] New York with the cash. You had been allowed to take out $10 and get quarters and go to [the arcade] and play video video games,” Matt mentioned, including that they finally allowed themselves to purchase beer with the funds, however that issues received just a little messy from that time on.
However, it looks like Ben and Matt’s ways labored out for one of the best — and it didn’t break their friendship both, because the duo are nearer than ever 30 years later.
The BFFs are at the moment on the highway selling their new film, Air, which is directed by Ben and stars them each as they inform the story of how Nike execs revolutionized the model by teaming up with Michael Jordan.
The film — which releases on April 7 — has already acquired glowing opinions and at the moment boasts a coveted 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s additionally the very first undertaking made by their shared manufacturing firm, Artists Fairness.
Throughout a current joint interview with CBS Information, Ben described taking pictures with Matt day-after-day as one of the best skilled expertise of his life.
“I discover essentially the most great factor about it was I beloved coming to work day-after-day. I really like seeing Matt,” he mentioned.
“It was simply a lot enjoyable – I do not know. It kinda felt like simply us and attending to do the factor that we wished to do,” he continued. “I did. I beloved it. I beloved it. I miss it day-after-day since. It was one of the best, like, work expertise of my life, with out query.”
