Matt Damon and Ben Affleck arrived in Hollywood together as a pair of mostly unknown actors. Today they're both international superstars, but Good Will Hunting, the movie that put them on the map, is still one of their most popular films. Fans of the movie would almost certainly love to see what else the pair could create together years later. Matt Damon says he would love to work with Affleck again, the only problem is that the two of them are so busy these days there just isn't the time.
Today, Ben Affleck is the big screen Batman, and Matt Damon has his own superhero of sorts in Jason Bourne. As part of the promotion for the new Jason Bourne film, Damon took part in a Reddit AMA, where he was asked about the possibility of him ever reteaming with his longtime friend Ben Affleck to write another amazing screenplay. Damon seems very interested in such a project, but due to the fact that the pair are both busy with other projects and their personal lives it's not in the cards.
Good Will Hunting obviously is the most influential movie in my life, and in Ben's life, and bringing it to the screen kind of dominated our 20s. It took 5 years to get it from the time we started to the time it came out, it took 5 years. So I would love to write another script with Ben; I love Ben, I love his work, he's been my buddy for 35 years. The big issue is time for us. We have a company together so we work on a lot of projects together, but to try to carve out the time is really tough. I mean we both have a whole mess of kids now, and these other days jobs. He's directing all the time and I'm off working with these other directors.
Good Will Hunting won the pair Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and starred Matt Damon as math genius Will Hunting and Ben Affleck as his best friend. Prior to the film's release, both Damon and Affleck had only played smaller parts in other films. According to Damon it was this fact, that the two weren't doing much acting, that gave them the time to craft the script for Good Will Hunting. That time simply doesn't exist now. Also, apparently Matt enjoyed playing the lead, something he's not sure his friend would allow anymore.
The thing about Good Will Hunting is that we were unemployed and we weren't writing the script on a deadline either. Nobody was expecting it, so we were just these two idiots in our basement writing this thing, and now we have all of these pressures of the lives grownups have. So I would never say never because I would absolutely love to write with Ben again, and I'd love to collaborate with him on anything, he's brilliant. I'd love to be in one of his movies that he directs. The problem there is that he just keeps giving himself the best roles, so until he stops doing that and maybe just directs, none of us can really work with him.
You can tell these two are friends when they still can't resist taking digs at each other. While it would certainly take time for these two to write a full, quality script again, we're guessing most folks would be willing to wait in order to see the end result. Maybe the buddies can find time in between other projects over the next few years to put something together.
Would you be interested in seeing a new idea from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon? Let us know in the comments.
