Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon say Good Will Hunting put them off writing together

Damon and Affleck have co-written Ridley Scott’s new film, The Last Duel

Sam Moore
Thursday 14 October 2021 22:09 BST
Comments
Ben Affleck responds to Sad Affleck video

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have revealed why they did not write together for a long time after Good Will Hunting.

Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with fellow co-writer Nicole Holofcener, the longtime friends and collaborators revealed why there was such a big time gap between Good Will Hunting and The Last Duel.

Damon said: “Good Will Hunting took us so long. We were like unemployed, broke guys. It took us forever to write that screenplay. I think we wrote thousands and thousands of pages.”

He continued: “We didn’t really know what we were doing and I think that kind of put us off writing again because we never thought we’d have the time.”

Damon said he thought he and Affleck were better writers than they were on their debut: “I think we found writing [The Last Duel] that we actually kind of picked up structure over the last 25 years of making movies so it went a lot faster.”

He also praised the contribution of Holofcener: “We also made the really good decision of getting a great writer to come with us.”

Affleck and Damon won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting which also starred the pair, as well as Robin Williams and Minnie Driver.

They were the first and second youngest people to ever win the award.

Affleck went on to joke: “You wouldn’t imagine that those two idiots would still be around.”

(Getty Images for Spike TV)

The Last Duel, which is directed by Ridley Scott, also stars Affleck and Damon, as well as Adam Driver and Jodie Comer.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in