A bromance worth celebrating! Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have proved over the years that nobody does friendship quite like them.
The childhood pals grew up together in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they became fast friends when Damon was 10 and Affleck was 8. Since then, the pair have gone on to become major movie stars. They’ve worked together on several projects, including School Ties, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Field of Dreams.
When writing the Oscar-winning screenplay for 1997’s Good Will Hunting, the longtime pals were roommates. “We rented this house on the beach in Venice and 800 people came and stayed with us and got drunk,” Affleck previously said, according to Forbes.
“Then we ran out of money and had to get an apartment. It was, like, everything was exciting,” he continued. “So we lived in Glendale and Eagle Rock and we lived in Hollywood, West Hollywood, Venice, by the Hollywood Bowl, all over the place. We’d get thrown out of some places or we’d have to upgrade or downgrade depending on who had money.”
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight in 2016, Damon opened up about his long-term bond with Affleck.
“I’ve known him for 35 years, and we grew up together,” he said at the time. “We were both in love with the same thing — acting and filmmaking. I think we fed on each other’s obsession during really formative, important years and that bonded us for life.”
A source told Us Weekly in 2018 that Damon was “a huge support” for Affleck during his journey to sobriety. “He’ll always be there for Ben whenever he needs him,” the insider added.
More than two decades after walking away with their Academy Award for Good Will Hunting in 1998, the pair teamed up again for Ridley Scott‘s The Last Duel, costarring in and writing the October 2021 feature along with Nicole Holofcener.
“This friendship has been essential and defining and so important to me in my life,” Affleck told Damon in a January 2022 Entertainment Weekly interview. “There were a few critical times, which are private and I don’t want to share, but where your support was so profoundly meaningful to me that I don’t think I would’ve been able to be successful without it.”
They again united forces for a forthcoming sports marketing flick. The untitled drama, which started filming in June 2022, is directed by Affleck and stars Damon as sneaker executive Sonny Vaccaro, who led Nike into its incredibly profitable partnership with Michael Jordan. Affleck also stars as American businessman Phil Knight.
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Scroll below to see Damon and Affleck’s enviable bromance over the years:
