'Broke in six months': Ben Affleck admits he and Matt Damon blew hefty 'Good Will Hunting' paychecks within 6 months
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: During the Friday, April 21, episode of 'The Drew Barrymore Show', Ben Affleck revealed how quickly he and his friend Matt Damon blew through their 'Good Will Hunting' earnings. The 'Air' director revealed to host Drew Barrymore that he and Damon had a bank account when they were just getting their start in the industry and that it lasted well into their 20s.
Affleck reminisced about their early days in Hollywood when he and Damon used to share a bank account to support their acting careers, as previously reported by MEAWW. "We were friends and we wanted each other to succeed. So it seemed clear, like, let’s do this together," Ben remarked. Ben, who has worked with Damon on nine different films to date, hasn't shied away from talking about the good old days with him. The actor exposed his longtime friend's dirty lifestyle earlier this month as well.
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'Never have to work again'
The 'Gone Girl' actor, 50, claimed that the two spent all of the $600,000 they received for selling the 'Good Will Hunting' screenplay, which earned them an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1997, on Jeeps and the rental of an extravagant home in Los Angeles, reports Daily Mail. Ben acknowledged that he thought he would "never have to work again" as soon as the screenplay for the 1997 film was sold. As two young, aspiring actors seeking to make a name for themselves in the film industry, they soon had to face the harsh truth of their financial situation.
Ben explained to Barrymore: "We sold it for $600,000, we split that, $300,000 each, and then the agents got $30,000 so we had $270,000 and we paid about $160,000 in taxes so we had $110,000, each bought $55,000 Jeep Cherokees and then had $55,000 left. Naturally, we decided to rent a $5,000-a-month party house on Glencoe Way by the Hollywood Bowl and we were broke in six months."
#AirMovie's @BenAffleck and Matt Damon went broke just six months after selling the script for "Good Will Hunting." pic.twitter.com/nYL4woytAs
— The Drew Barrymore Show (@DrewBarrymoreTV) April 21, 2023
In an interview for 'The Bill Simmons Podcast', Damon, 52, recounted working with Ben to fund flights to New York for auditions while they shared a bank account. Ben recently shared his residence in Los Angeles with the 'Bourne Identity' actor and his brother Casey Affleck in a candid interview with James Corden on the 'Late Late Show'. The 'Gone Girl' star quipped that his friend "never paid a bill in his life" and claimed that Matt was so horrible at cleaning that their house had maggots in it.
While Damon told IMDb that they may have had to flip a coin to decide which color went in the Jeeps they bought after 'Good Will Hunting', Ben told Barrymore that having each other's support during their early careers was "really valuable."
Ben Affleck recounts Matt Damon's filthy habits
Ben said that he and his brother Casey Affleck shared a room with Damon at the beginning of their careers during an interview on 'The Late Late Show with James Corden'. Ben made fun of Damon for being a filthy roommate by saying, "We went on a 'no cleaning strike' to see how long until Matt realized, 'God, I'm covered in garbage.' But it didn't work. He went like two weeks without touching the apartment." Ben continued to make fun of the fact that he and Casey eventually had to clean up after themselves.
Ben also shared some unflattering information about their time living together. Ben claimed that Damon was a "filthy" roommate because of his "remarkable ability to mentally block out" things. While he was there, Ben remembered entering the apartment to find Damon playing on a Sega Genesis amid "concentric circles of garbage," which included pizza boxes and unfinished sushi with "maggots" on them.
Despite calling Damon a "beautiful" and "brilliant" man, Ben stressed that he would "not suggest living with" him. "God bless his wife, Lucy. There is a place for you in heaven," he added, giving Damon's wife Luciana Barroso a shout-out.
