Stardom: Good Will Hunting and the Jason Bourne series The coauthors persuaded Miramax to let them star in the movie alongside veteran actor Robin Williams. The film garnered nine Oscar nominations, including best actor for Damon. In 1998, at age 27, he won (with Affleck) the Academy Award for best original screenplay.
Affleck and Damon are still the best of friends today — so it only makes sense that Damon was the first person the media turned to when rumors buzzed in 2021 of a rekindled romance between Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. (The pair got together in 2002 before calling off their engagement in 2004.)
For Good Will Hunting, Damon and Affleck won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for their screenplay. Affleck was 25 at the time and holds the record for the youngest-ever winner of the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; Damon was the second-youngest winner at 27.
Williams's performances garnered various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting; as well as two previous Academy Award nominations, for Dead Poets Society, and as a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King, respectively.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Win Best Original Screenplay for "Good Will Hunting" | 70th Oscars (1997)
Who has received 52 Oscar nominations?
The film composer has won five Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTAs and 25 Grammys. With 52 Oscar nominations, he is second only to Walt Disney as most nominated person ever.
At the 70th Academy Awards, it received nominations in nine categories, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won in two: Best Supporting Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon.
How much did Ben Affleck and Matt Damon get for Good Will Hunting?
We sold [the script] for $600,000. We split that, $300,000 each, and then the agents got $30,000, so we had $270,000. We paid about $160,000 in taxes so we had $110,000. We each bought $55,000 Jeep Cherokees and then had $55,000 left.”
Cole Hauser grew up in California, Oregon and Florida. He became friends with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon during shooting of School Ties (1992). His father is of German, Irish, Belgian (Walloon), and French descent, and his mother is from a Jewish family (from Austria, Russia, and Poland).
Did Matt Damon and Ben Affleck get famous from Good Will Hunting?
December 1997: They cowrote and costarred in "Good Will Hunting." In 1997, "Good Will Hunting" was released, and Affleck and Damon were immediately thrust into stardom. Damon played the title character, Will, and Affleck played his on-screen best friend.
Damon was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he took drama classes. At age 18 he landed a small part in Mystic Pizza (1988) and also enrolled in Harvard University as an English major.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship spans 4 decades. How it all began. The childhood friends from Massachusetts cemented their star statuses with “Good Will Hunting” — and have been working together ever since.
Hauser and McConaughey have a longstanding friendship that dates back to their Dazed and Confused days. Hauser even referred to him as his “brother from another mother,” which is fitting for what the two are softly working on.
As Cole Hauser gears up to wrap up Yellowstone, he's soaking in all the time he can get with the most important woman in his life. As the Free Rein coffee owner prepares to film the final episodes of season 5 part 2 this spring, he made sure to get a date night on his calendar with his wife Cynthia Daniel.
How much did Robin Williams get paid for Good Will Hunting?
In the late '90's, Williams easily pulled $20 million for every movie he did, but he agreed to only $5 million for "Good Will Hunting." When asked about this huge pay cut, Williams simply said: "I had to...they would have made this movie without me...it's too good not to be made."
Famously Affleck and Damon wrote the script together, but it was not always a project for both of them. In fact, “Good Will Hunting” was originally just Damon's project. Also, it wasn't so much a “project” as a school assignment.
Affleck's net worth is estimated to be around $150 million and Damon's is an estimated $170 million. Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle.
Minnie Driver and Matt Damon dated in the late '90s, after meeting in the film “Good Will Hunting.” The two dated for a year, and broke up right before awards season, resulting in some uncomfortable moments since the film went on to win multiple Academy Awards.
However, the end of their approximately two-year romance made Matt decide to never date another celebrity again. Amid their other high-profile celebrity couples, many fans have forgotten about Matt Damon and Winona Ryder's romance in the late 90s. The two dated each other for nearly two years and broke up in 2000.
Is there going to be a sequel to Good Will Hunting?
Ben Affleck noted that it was not a follow-up they are “going to pursue”. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon recently rejected a pitch for a sequel to their 1997 movie Good Will Hunting.
