Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have been finest associates for a very long time. After rising up collectively in Massachusetts, the 2 moved out to Los Angeles in pursuit of careers in the film enterprise.
Regardless that it took a while, the 2 discovered had a breakthrough after writing the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning movie Good Will Looking. The success of the movie launched the performing careers of each Affleck and Damon, who turned two of the largest names in Hollywood.
And whereas each actors are extraordinarily rich right this moment, there was a degree in time the place they wanted an situation of Selection to safe an condominium.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon partied laborious once they first moved to LA
When Affleck and Damon first arrived in LA, the 2 had been able to make their transfer on Hollywood. Damon recalled their early days in town throughout a 2011 interview with Forbes.
“We rented this house on the beach in Venice and 800 people came and stayed with us and got drunk,” he mentioned.
Inside a number of months, two blew via their financial savings and needed to discover some other place to stay. In line with Damon, he and Affleck bounced round a number of components of LA as they figured issues out.
“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.”
Ben Affleck was sleeping on Matt Damon’s sofa once they offered the ‘Good Will Hunting’ script
Finally, the 2 stopped residing collectively after Affleck discovered himself in a severe relationship. Nevertheless, Affleck got here knocking on Damon’s door after he broke off the union.
“When we sold that script, he had been engaged and that engagement had broken off,” he mentioned. “And we had already signed a lease — me and another guy we went to high school with had signed a lease for a two-bedroom.”
Earlier than lengthy, Affleck and Damon realized that they couldn’t get by in the small condominium they had been sharing. The uncomfortable residing scenario pressured them to get extra centered on the Good Will Looking script.
“And the couch wasn’t a full-sized couch and he’s 6’4”, so I’d stroll out each morning and see his legs dangling off the aspect,” he mentioned. “And it was in that context that we sold the script. And I think we worked — like, we got really serious about it when we found ourselves living like that.”
They’d to make use of an situation of ‘Variety’ to safe a brand new condominium
When their script was lastly bought by Fortress Rock Leisure, the younger actors earned a considerable $600,000 windfall. They lastly had the cash to lease a two-bedroom condominium however hadn’t gotten the money but.
As an alternative of utilizing financial institution statements, Affleck and Damon used their cowl function in Selection as proof of revenue to safe the condominium.
“We literally had such terrible credit, right? We either had no credit or bad credit, and there was no reason anybody would rent a nice place to us. We didn’t have cash to show. So we walked around with this Variety article because they said, ‘These two idiots sold a script,’ and we were on the cover of Variety. And we were like, ‘Look that’s us!’ And that’s literally how we got a lease.”
‘Good Will Hunting’ Screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Added a Pretend Intercourse Scene That Solely Harvey Weinstein Observed
