Ben Affleck Was Sleeping on Matt Damon’s Couch When They Sold the ‘Good Will Hunting’ Script — ‘We Gotta Fix This, Everyone Needs a Bedroom’
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have one of the most famous friendships in Hollywood. The two grew up together in Massachusetts and moved out to Los Angeles to pursue their dreams as filmmakers in their earlier years, finding success after developing the Academy Award-winning film Good Will Hunting.
Since working on the movie, they’ve both had very successful careers in the movie business. Matt Damon has starred in several critically acclaimed flicks such as Saving Private Ryan, The Martian, and Ocean’s Eleven, while Affleck has directed films including The Town and Argo.
It’s hard to believe it now, but there was a time when both actors were struggling to get by in Hollywood. In fact, prior to selling the Good Will Hunting script, Affleck had to crash on Damon’s couch for a time.
Ben Affleck slept on Matt Damon’s couch after his engagement ended
Damon recalled the challenging period in their lives during a recent interview with Access.
“When we sold that script, he had been engaged and that engagement had broken off,” he said. “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.”
Even though Damon and his friend didn’t really have any room for Affleck, they decided to let him sleep on the couch.
“So we were like, ‘Dude, we don’t have a place for you to stay, sorry.’ But he moved in with all his stuff, and so all of his stuff was in our living room and he slept on this couch,” he said.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon got serious about ‘Good Will Hunting’ after Ben moved in
The uncomfortable living conditions inspired the two to get more aggressive about completing the Good Will Hunting script.
“And the couch wasn’t a full-sized couch and he’s 6’4”, so I’d walk out every morning and see his legs dangling off the side,” he said. “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.”
Damon joked that finding a bedroom for Affleck became the overarching goal for their creative pursuits. “We were like, ‘We gotta fix this. Everyone needs a bedroom,” he said.
They used an issue of ‘Variety’ to secure their next apartment
Once they sold the script for Good Will Hunting, Damon and Affleck finally had some income to afford a decent apartment. However, since they had to wait for the check to come in, they went around LA using an issue of Variety as collateral for their rental.
“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.”
