Matt Damon he received a glowing endorsement from his best friend for his portrayal of the legendary Greek warrior Odysseus in Christopher Nolan‘s highly anticipated blockbuster ‘The Odyssey’. The 55-year-old actress revealed that Ben Affleck called her to congratulate her after seeing the film, which Damon was known to be only a minute away from.According to The Mirror, Damon explained that Affleck had already seen the production and praised him. “Ben has already seen the movie. He called me recently, and I was like ‘I’ve been waiting 45 years for this phone call,'” the source said, emphasizing the importance of receiving such recognition from his lifelong supporter and friend.Set to premiere in theaters on July 17, the $250 million epic represents the biggest milestone in Damon’s career. The film marks the first to be shot on a large-format camera, an ambitious project that Damon admits came with many challenges. “We made this film for adults, and this is difficult, but I am happy to share it with the world. We had some young actors in the film. It is impossible to uproot them. They’re good at it,” he said.
The size of the film is cast
The film follows the legendary Greek king Odysseus as he struggles to return home to Ithaca following the decade-long Trojan War. The film has an all-star cast Tom HollandAnne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton and Charlize Theron, bringing together some of the best actors in cinema.Christopher Nolan directs the Bronze Age epic, building on his recent success after picking up Oscars for best and best director in 2024.
Deep friendship between Damon and Affleck
Since launching an independent, artist-led studio together in 2022, Damon has compared his relationship with Affleck to that of a famous musician. Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the 2021 draft of the popular group. After watching the documentary with his youngest daughter, who was 11 years old at the time, Damon found himself crying at the final scene.“It reminded me of how we all started. At the end, there’s this amazing scene when they’re playing for the last time on a rooftop in London. It’s like the most fun thing when they’re all in their 20s,” explained Damon. “I watched it with my youngest daughter, and she said, ‘Dad, why are you crying? Tears were just rolling down my face. It made me very sad, because there were these boys who couldn’t get through anything that wouldn’t allow them to continue working together.“
Matt Damon has reflected on his lifelong friendship with Ben Affleck, recalling their journey from aspiring actors in Boston to longtime Hollywood partners. Photo credit (Instagram).
This sight caused Damon to connect with his friend and express gratitude for their shared journey. “So I just called Ben, and I was like, ‘man, I think this has been our dream and our lives since we were teenagers.’ I mean we wanted to make movies together, we wrote Good Will Hunting together, we produced it together. After that we had a little trouble working together for a while. Then, all of a sudden, decades passed, and it was like, ‘Now we’re in our 50s. We’re starting a company together, and I don’t care,” Damon said.
A shared bank account is the first hurdle
Reflecting on their penniless beginnings as actors, before Good Will Hunting took home two Oscars in 1998, Damon recalled their unorthodox approach to financing their dreams. “We used to share money in the bank where we put the money that we have done professionally. So, when we get each part or additional work, we get $50 or $100, and the money goes into our sharing account. “We used the money to go to auditions in New York, and we took the bus from Boston,” she said.The commute from Boston to New York for auditions was exhausting and frustrating. “It used to take them about four or five hours to get to New York. We’d go to a place in midtown Manhattan, and within three minutes they’d say, ‘Okay, thank you! We used to say, ‘Okay, thank you.’ Because you’d go in there, beat your chest, pull your hair out and cry, and they’d say, ‘Okay, thank you. But we had this trust account. We also used it to play video games at this location on Madison Avenue, buy beer and go to the gym. Those were the three who used the account,” Damon said.
The secret is River Phoenix
The access number of the shared account also mentioned about the young actress whom all the men admire so much. In an appearance on the podcast, Damon revealed the meaning of their secret secret. “The code was ‘River P,’ because River Phoenix was an actress we really admired. He was our age, and he accepted the parts we wanted to do. So it was our secret to our shared bank account,” Damon said, paying tribute to the singer who died of a drug overdose in 1993 aged just 23.
From struggling actors to established Hollywood
Today, boasting considerable wealth and property in several locations, Damon doesn’t want to have a shared bank account. However, they still enjoy the joy of every event that the two got together in the early years. “It feels like you won the lottery, but your best friend won too. We’ve talked about it, Ben and I. And it’s just that it didn’t seem strange to us in the 1980s that we were 14 and 16 years old and going to New York by ourselves to read things,” said Damon.The actor emphasized how their youth looks in retrospect. “It wasn’t until we had kids that we thought ‘can you believe we’re just going to do research like that?’ I mean, can you just let this kid go to San Francisco alone for the day? It seemed natural to us. We used to start as extras. It can be a humiliating job, but we love being in the game. We were happy to be there, and yes, I mean, it started a business,” he said.
Overcome commitment
Now firmly established as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men, Damon’s rise to the top was built on relentless hard work, and he shows no signs of letting up. “Even if you’re good at it you might have to break a lot of eggs to get an omelet. You know what I mean?” he ended up thinking about the effort needed to continue to excel at his job.‘The Odyssey’ opens in theaters on Friday, July 17.