Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on March 18, 2023, in Austin, Texas.Photo:Michael Loccisano/Getty
Michael Loccisano/Getty
Matt DamonandBen Affleckare at it again!
The longtime friends and collaborators, who last worked together on 2023’sAir, are teaming up forNetflix’s upcoming kidnapping crime filmAnimals, the streaming giantannounced Thursday.
Dani Bernfeld has teamed up with the duo to co-produce the film under their Artists Equity banner, while the plot will focus on a politician and his wife who must overcome odds to save their kidnapped son, perThe Hollywood Reporter.
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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon inAir(2023).Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
Amazon Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection
The Boston natives have been best friends for years, and their bond has led them to collaborate onscreen numerous times, including theirOscar-winning debutGood Will Hunting(1997) and, more recently, withThe Last Duel(2021) and their 2023 Nike dramaAir.
“Ben has always had an incredible charisma. People are just getting introduced to it through film,” Damon toldThe Los Angeles Timesof his friend in 1999. “It’s hard to think of your best friend as a movie star, but the fact that he is [stems from] the extent to which parts of the real him come through. He is somebody that everybody wants to be around.”
After the success ofGood Will Hunting, which won each of them their firstAcademy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, the duo considered going their separate ways professionally — but it didn’t quite shake out that way.
“For a while, we thought maybe we should chill and just do other stuff, and not be Matt and Ben, Matt and Ben,” Affleck recalledBoston Magazinein a 2013 interview. “We have our company together, we’re developing together. And Matt lives down the street from me like he used to. His kids are living with him, the way we used to live with our folks. The only difference is that we have pools.”
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at the 70th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 23, 1998.Hector Mata/AFP via Getty
Hector Mata/AFP via Getty
Talking specifically about the “shorthand"he and Affleck have on set, Damon said in July 2023 onSunday TODAY with Willie Geist, “What’s really great is there’s no diplomacy.”
But in Affleck and Damon’s case, “We can just say, ‘You suck,’ " theOppenheimeractor joked, laughing. “Which is really a gift because you get through the bulls— faster and you go, ‘How do we fix it?’ "
“Just tell me I’ve overacting, you know what I mean?” he added later.
source: people.com
