“Good Will Hunting” was the big breakthrough film for both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck – due in no small part to Robin Williams’ Oscar-winning performance. But it was an arduous road until then…
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon not only share a decades-long friendship, but also a fruitful artistic partnership. Just this year, Damon starred in Affleck’s latest directorial effort, “Air – The Big One,” and they continued to star together in the drama “The Outsider” as well as the Kevin Smith films “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma.”
Their undisputed greatest triumph, however, remains the drama “Good Will Hunting” (1997), for which they jointly wrote an Oscar-winning screenplay – another gold statue went to Robin Williams, who as therapist Dr. Sean Maguire tries to give the titular Will Hunting (Damon) a better life. The 20-year-old is highly gifted, but repeatedly gets into trouble with the law because of his precarious background.
Damon had already begun writing the “Good Will Hunting” script in college, not suspecting that the resulting film would probably be the most important career step for him. Together with Affleck, he made a plan to write a script so good that no producer could turn it down – and then play two of the leads himself to advance their careers.
But at the same time, they knew that their names alone would not be enough to convince the major studios. So for the all-important therapist role, they had to get an actor well-known enough to serve as an argument.
It was Quentin Tarantino who gave them the idea to approach Harvey Keitel. “At the time, there was a very popular movie that we all loved: ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ Quentin Tarantino’s first film. And the story circulated that the only reason Quentin was given half a million dollars was because Harvey Keitel was on board. That was his budget, and that’s how he was able to make the movie,” Damon told GQ in an interview.
Damon and Affleck wanted to emulate the future “Pulp Fiction” director – and initially wrote the role, which Robin Williams eventually took, for Harvey Keitel. “We were looking for an actor who could make us money because Ben and I were going to be the leads in the movie and knew full well we weren’t worth anything.”
Although they had Keitel in mind, they prepared to rewrite the role if necessary, in case another star did bite. “We knew we could adapt [the role] if Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington played it,” Damon continues in the interview. “If Meryl Streep took the role, it could have been about a mother-son relationship instead of a father-son relationship. So we really left it open because we wanted to cover as many options as possible. “
ROBIN WILLIAMS CAME ON BOARD THANKS TO FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
But how did Robin Williams ultimately get involved? The decisive turning point in the casting of Dr. Sean Maguire was brought about by Francis Ford Coppola. He was shooting the John Grisham adaptation “The Rainmaker” with Damon and suggested Robin Williams, with whom he had shot the comedy “Jack” shortly before. “When [Robin] read the script and really liked it, his only question to Coppola was: ‘Who are these guys?'”
But eventually the star of “Jumanji” and “Dead Poets Society” was won over by the quality of the script, and the rest is history. “Good Will Hunting,” directed by Gus Van Sant, was not only showered with awards, but grossed more than $225 million at the box office on a $10 million budget – and made sure everyone really knew who Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were afterwards.
