What Made Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Decide to Write “Good Will Hunting”

Photo by Tiffany Chan on Unsplash

In an interview with Bill Simmons, Matt Damon recalls the following phenomenon in Hollywood:

A great script would hit and A-List actors in the 90s would take it, as they should.

Every once and a while, they would pass, and it would move on to the hungry class waiting for their shot.

And that’s about 1000 actors right for the role.

So Damon and Affleck made a choice.

We can wait our turn. Or we can make the movie we want to star in.

Studios loved the script, but didn’t want no-names. They offered to pay them more money to not star in Good Will Hunting.

You know the rest, but hear the story.