Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen -- Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Good Will Hunting
Q. Matt, Ben -
A. Hey, Joyce, how you doing?
Q. This is so unbelievable. You have to know that in Boston there is the biggest party going on right now when your names were said. They were just going crazy. What do you have to say to Boston right now? A. First of all, hello; and second of all, we've been following - in the Globe, we see all the stories. We heard everybody's getting together at L's. So this round's on Matt at L. Street. Send me the bill.
Q. We love you. Congratulations.
A. Excellent.
Q. What is your secret of working together, if you plan on writing more screenplays?
A. Not only do we plan on it, we're contracted to do it. So we have to. Have you ever worked with Harvey Weinstein, and then you somehow end up giving him - five bucks a piece. So, yeah, we're going to be definitely writing some more. The secret to working together is abuse each other. If you can't be honest with the guy - you work with him apropo of the point because actually we really don't pull any punches when we critique each other.
Q. Matt, Ben, how was it having your moms as dates, and what did they say to you?
A. It was really good. Oh, no, my mom was just really happy. It was obviously - she just told me to try and enjoy the moment. It's nice for our moms to see all this stuff, and my mom came to the rehearsal and took pictures. She went to Gil Cates and she' like, "Gil, do you think it's okay to take some pictures? Sure. Gil said it was okay." She's considering this her grandson, and she's holding it for ransom until she gets her real one.
Q. You took the bull by the horns. You created your own big break. How important is that for a struggling actor to create their own big breaks?
A. I think more than anything that it was an exercise in frustration, because whether or not it actually comes to fruiting, I think the act of sitting down and kind of taking control of your own life - the problem of being an actor, most of the time you're not going to be working and it's really, really difficult to feel like you own your own life, and so just the act of sitting down, writing was something we could kind of go on our own time and feel like there was an outlet for this kind of creativity that we felt like we had. And we never would have thought really that it was possible. Even 15 years ago you didn't think independent movies was something that you could do. So Matt and I thought that we could really do the movie by raising a little bit of money, like Kevin Smith and Spike Lee and all these - and Quentin Tarantino and all these great inventors, the Cohens and then you thought oh, well, you can make a movie because we never thought that anyone would buy it, go through the Hollywood channels. And certainly end up wining an Academy Award for God's sake.
Q. To Mr. Damon, which one did you want to win more?
A. Are you kidding me, man? I've never even been here before. I didn't care. He just wanted a job, sir. Thank you.
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