news Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Went ‘Broke’ Within Six Months of Selling ‘Good Will Hunting’ Script

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon weren’t living easy following the sale of their “Good Will Hunting” script.

The duo collaborators, who went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the 1997 film, blew the $600,000 paycheck within six months of selling the script, as Affleck revealed during “The Drew Barrymore Show.”

“We sold [the script] 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,” Affleck said. “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.”

Affleck previously told IMDb that he and Damon purchased Jeep Grand Cherokees and flipped a coin to see which color they would buy.

“Then we ended up with, like, his-and-his black and green Jeep trucks,” Affleck said. “And we’d always be like ‘who’s truck are we going to take?’ because we lived together.”

In their early careers, Affleck and Damon also shared a bank account, with Damon admitting it was an “unusual” set-up to fund auditions early in their respective careers.

“As long as one of us had money we knew the power wasn’t going to get shut off,” Damon said. “After doing [1992’s] ‘Geronimo’ I probably had 35 grand in the bank. I was like, ‘We’re good for a year.'”

Affleck agreed, adding, “We were going to help each other and be there for each other. It was like, ‘You’re not going to be alone. I’m not going to be alone. Let’s go out there and do this together.'”

Affleck directs Damon in “Air,” the historic story of how Michael Jordan became the face of Nike. The film, which is produced by Damon and Affleck’s Artists Equity production company, marks the first time Affleck has directed Damon onscreen.

“Honestly, it was kind of a natural progression,” Damon said of the experience. “We’ve written a bunch of movies and produced and acted together for so many years and decades, so it didn’t feel any different, working this way.”

#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
 
It was rough in those days, they had to share one beige sweater between the both of them.

Hey! Here is a sentence I'd never thought I'd say....
this movie would have been so much better with Ben Afflick in it

 
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