For most movie fans, the Matt Damon–Ben Affleck partnership feels like a constant. They came up together, won an Oscar together, and have remained publicly inseparable for decades. But what’s easy to forget is just how long they intentionally avoided working side by side. That distance was a strategy they employed after getting some “well-intentioned advice.” And now, thanks to a surprisingly emotional, Beatles-inspired story The Departed star recently shared, it’s clear why reuniting later in life and continuing to work together ended up meaning so much more.
Kyle Chandler, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show to promote their 2026 movie release, The Rip. In a clip shared on the show’s Instagram, Damon opened up about the long gap between collaborations, offering an unexpectedly tender explanation for why the partnership endured. As he put it:
We had gone, I think it was almost 20 years without working together. And I think partly because when Good Will Hunting came out, all that time ago, we were so seen as a team that I think we wanted to not kind of get typecasted.
But that was only the beginning of the story. According to The Martian star, the real turning point came while watching Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back documentary, streaming with a Disney+ subscription, with his daughter. The moment the doc ended quietly reframed how the Talented Mr. Ripley actor thought about creative partnerships and the finite nature of time. He explained:
I was watching that Peter Jackson documentary and at the end of it on the fourth one at the end, the Beatles play that live show on top of a, on top of that roof. And it was so great. And I was watching it with my daughter and then he put up this chyron that said this was the last time The Beatles played live together. And it just… I you know, my daughter leaves, she goes, dad, why are you crying?
Seeing those young, joyful artists still bursting with ideas hit The Odyssey performer harder than he expected. What stayed with him wasn’t just the performance, but the realization of how much creative time was left on the table, and how easily it can slip away. It was a reminder that even the strongest collaborations don’t last forever unless you choose to keep them alive. He continued:
It just made me so sad because they were so full of joy. They were so young, and there was so much more music they felt like they could have made..We found ourselves in our 50s. We’re both still here. Let’s go out on our shields at least together.
What started as a plan to build a small studio and work together again ultimately became something far more emotional than strategic. In hindsight, the advice that once pushed Damon and Affleck to keep their careers separate wasn’t wrong, as it gave them room to grow, stumble, and succeed on their own terms. But choosing to reunite now feels just as deliberate, and maybe even more meaningful. It just goes to show you that even if you’re Hollywood's biggest stars, sometimes, all you need is love… from your best bud.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s most recent collaboration, The Rip, is now available to stream with a Netflix subscription.
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