For Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, a lifelong friendship has also fostered an award-winning and acclaimed creative partnership and a rich shared body of work. Since 1989, Damon and Affleck have appeared in nine films together, including Goodwill Hunting, a coming-of-age film in which the two not only starred, but wrote the screenplay for, resulting in their first Oscar win for Best Screenplay in 1998. It is their most recent collaboration Air, which was released in theaters on April 5 and is based on the true story of how Michael Jordan signed an industry-changing shoe deal with Nike. In the film, Damon plays sports marketing director Sonny Vaccaro, who recruited Jordan for the now-famous Nike deal, while Affleck, who directed the film, portrays the eccentric Nike co-founder. Phil Knight.
Air marks a new era of creative collaboration for the duo, who recently joined forces to form Artists Equity, a production company that seeks to give cast and crew a fair share of the profits of films released to do; at the company, Affleck is chief executive, and Damon is head of content. But this new phase of their careers is just another milestone in a bromance for the ages. The two met more than 40 years ago as children in Cambridge, MA, outside Boston, and knew their friendship was the real deal after Affleck defended Damon in a fight school yard. As teenagers, they pursued film careers together, traveling from Boston to New York City for auditions. Once they broke into Hollywood, the two continued to support each other’s work and often pursued projects that allowed them to work together on and off screen.
Read more: How Air tells the truth about Michael Jordan’s Nike shoe deal
“This friendship has been essential and definitive and so important to me in my life,” Affleck told Damon in 2022. Entertainment every week an interview. “There were several critical moments, which are private and I don’t want to share, but where your support was so important to me that I don’t think I would have been successful without it.”
Here’s a look back at all Matt Damon and Ben Affleck movies.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Both made their first major album as uncredited extras Field of Dreams. According to an interview with Damon on the Dan Patrick Lookthe main reason they were in the movie was because the call for extras was at the Red Sox ballpark, Fenway Park.
“Just to go to Fenway,” Damon said. “We were extras in ‘Field of Dreams.’ I bet there were probably 3,000 more in the crowd when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are at the basketball game. ” Damon also said that their first movie experience had a big impact on them, including meeting Costner.
“Costner came out and hung out with the extras,” he said. “And Ben and I went and had a chat with him. And it probably took us five minutes. He was very generous with his time.”
School Ties (1992)
It was Affleck and Damon’s next film together School Linkswhere they co-starred as Chesty Smith and Charlie Dillon, two anti-semitic bullies who target David Green (played by Brendan Fraser), a Jewish classmate, at their prestigious prep school.
Goodwill Hunt
With Goodwill Hunting, Affleck and Damon established themselves as not only talent on the silver screen, but behind the scenes as well. Damon stars as the title character, a mathematical genius who works at MIT as a janitor, while Affleck played his friend, Chuckie. The pair wrote the screenplay together, with Damon starting the first script while a student at Harvard; the film draws inspiration from their upbringing in the Boston area.
“We came up with this idea of the great guy and his hometown friends, where he was special and the government wanted to get their mitts on him,” Affleck said of the film in a 2013 interview. Boston Journal. “And there was a great deal Beverly Hills Cop, Run Midnight awareness, where kids from Boston were giving the slip to the NSA all the time.”
The film became a critically acclaimed romance, earning the couple a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Chasing Amy (1997)
Affleck and Damon appeared on the screen together again In pursuit of Amy, a film based on the romantic woes of Holden McNeil, played by Affleck, who falls for Amy, a lesbian; Damon has a bit part as a business executive. Although the film has not fared well, especially in terms of its depiction of sexuality, it is largely considered a cult classic as part of the Kevin Smith (better known as “Silent Bob” ). Clerks cinematic universe.
Read more: We don’t deserve Ben Affleck
Dogma (1999)
Both appeared in another film for the Clerks movie world by Dogmathe fourth film in the series, which stars Damon and Affleck as Bartleby and Loki, two fallen angels who are banished to live in Wisconsin.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
In Jay and Silent Bob strike backthe fifth film in the Clerks movie series, Damon and Affleck’s on-screen roles get meta. The two co-star as themselves, as well as their characters from Goodwill Hunt and Affleck reprises his role as the disaffected Holden from In pursuit of Amy.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)
Eighteen years after they last appeared in a Clerks movie, Affleck and Damon appeared in the aptly named Jay and Silent Bob reboot. For this film, Affleck reprized Holden from In pursuit of Amy again, while Damon plays his Loki character from dogma, but with a tongue-in-cheek twist – Jason Bourne is also the fallen angel, a nod to Damon’s popular film persona.
The Last Duel (2021)
With The Final Duel, Affleck and Damon starred as French aristocrats caught in a battle for honor. Damon starred as Sir Jead de Carouges, a nobleman who is so obsessed with gaining the approval of his lying lord, Count Pierre d’Alencon, played by Affleck, that he is his wife’s absentee husband , who says she was raped by a knight.
Read more: Matt Damon wants you to care about water
Air (2023)
In Air, the pair reunite on screen for the first offering from their production company, Artists Equity. Focusing on the story of how Michael Jordan signed his legendary shoe deal with Nike, the film stars Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, the sports marketing director who was the architect of the deal and Affleck co-stars , who also directed the film, as Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike.
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