Matt Damon says Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, or Meryl Streep Could Have Played Robin Williams’ Role in ‘Good Will Hunting’

Getting a movie funded is no easy task. It was even difficult for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to bring the iconic Good Will Hunting to the big screen. In a September 2021 interview with GQ, Damon revealed how the writing partners were so desperate to get the movie made, they were willing to rewrite what turned out to be Robin Williams‘ role in Good Will Hunting.

Robin William’s performance in ‘Good Will Hunting’ is part of what makes the film iconic

It’s hard to imagine Good Will Hunting without Robin Williams. With his caring sense of humor and tough love, his version of community college psychology professor Dr. Sean Maguire earned him his only Academy Award. 

Williams and Damon’s chemistry propels the film forward, telling the story of a troubled genius trying to find himself. Maguire never gives up on Damon’s Will and helps him navigate his love life and past abuse to have a future. 

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck didn’t write Dr. Sean Maguire with Robin Williams in mind

When Damon and Affleck sat down to write the Good Will Hunting script, they realized they needed a big name in the professor role if they wanted the film to hit the big screen.

“Ben and I wrote it because we wanted the parts as actors,” Damon said. “At the time, there was a really popular movie that we all loved called Reservoir Dogs. The story we had heard was that because Harvey Kietel had signed up for the movie, [director] Quintin [Tarantino] got half a million dollars.”

They believed if they could another big name to star in their film, they could get funding.

“So we wrote that part that Robin eventually took, we called it the Harvey Keitel part – looking for an actor that could get us some money because Ben and I wanted to star in the movie, and we knew we were worth nothing. So we needed to get somebody.” 

The ‘Good Will Hunting’ writers were willing to rewrite the part around the right actor

Damon emphasized how flexible he and Affleck were about who played the professor. “We wrote it really open-ended. We wrote it saying, ‘Okay, [my and Robin’s characters are] from the same neighborhood, so they kind of understand each other,” he said. 

However, Damon and Affleck weren’t tethered to the character’s origins and were willing to change their demographics if needed.

“We also knew we could adjust it if Morgan Freeman or somebody like Denzel Washington wanted to come in and play it, we could make that character from Roxbury [a historically Black neighborhood] and kind of explore the historic racial tension in Boston.”

Matt Damon was open to Meryl Streep playing the Professor role in ‘Good Will Hunting’

They also had a plan if a famous actress was interested in playing the professor. 

“If Meryl Streep took the part, instead of a father/son relationship, there would be a mother-son relationship,” Damon said. “We really left it open because we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible because we were trying to get the movie made.”

Robin Williams was eventually cast in ‘Good Will Hunting’ thanks to Frances Ford Coppola

Eventually, Williams was cast in the now-iconic role. However, that didn’t come to be until Damon starred in 1997’s The Rainmaker with director Frances Ford Coppola. 

Williams was just coming of off Coppola’s Jack and The Godfather director vouched for the young up-and-coming star. 

Being flexible about who played Sean Maguire paid off for Affleck and Damon. They won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay that year.