Matt Damon says he and Ben Affleck were nearly out of money after selling the Good Will Hunting screenplay.
The 55-year-old actor talked about the experience on Wednesday’s episode of the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce.
Near the 32-minute, 41-second mark in the video linked above, Jason Kelce asked Damon which of his early opportunities felt like his “big break.”
Damon explained it was hard to pinpoint because every small opportunity felt enormous at the time. As they slowly landed larger parts, casting directors gave mixed but encouraging feedback.
That was, until their 1997 film, Good Will Hunting, became somewhat of a turning point.
"When we sold Good Will Hunting—when we sold the screenplay, we thought that was absolutely it—and we were like broke a year later," he admitted. "I mean, not 'broke broke’ ... We sold the screenplay for 600 grand, right? Which was just so much more money than either of us had ever considered.
"In which we split, right? But after taxes and agent lawyer and all that stuff … Now we're down under 150 each, and the first thing we did was buy brand new Jeep Grand Cherokees," he said with a laugh, before saying that reality set in fast. "We were renting this place in LA … It didn't take long for us to be like, 'Dude, we gotta get another job.’”
That experience apparently shaped how he and Affleck now think about ownership and long term value.
"Actually with our studio [Artists Equity], one of the things we really fight for is reversion rights," Damon noted. "Ben called me a couple of years ago and he goes, 'You know, The Town just got relicensed for 35 million bucks.’ Which just means that he made a great movie and people are still watching it."
Despite its success, Damon says Affleck did not personally see much of that money.
"At the time, that movie made a fortune. But he was on a flat salary and I don't even think he made a million bucks for that movie and he wrote it, directed it, starred in it," he said. "It was one of those things … Our view was, ‘Look, if you do something like that as one of the real contributors to it, if there's money kind of in perpetuity, then you should be a part of that.'"
Watch Matt Damon’s full appearance on the New Heights podcast up top.