Actor Matt Damon reveals that his 15-year-old daughter refuses to watch his film Good Will Hunting. Damon, who has starred in blockbuster movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Bourne Identity, and science-based space survival film The Martian, has been one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood for over two decades. His upcoming film Stillwater will be released on July 30th after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Damon has been nominated for five Oscars and won one, for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with childhood friend Ben Affleck.
Good Will Hunting came out in 1997 and was Damon and Affleck’s big break. Damon stars as Will, a troubled young man who works as a janitor at MIT and is a self-taught mathematical genius. The film also stars Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård, and Robin Williams in a role for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Good Will Hunting was directed by Gus Van Sant, though reportedly Affleck and Damon originally wanted Kevin Smith to direct. In addition to his shared Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, Damon was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Will.
Despite Damon’s movie-star status, it seems not everyone in his family acts impressed. In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning (via EW) to promote Stillwater, Damon revealed that his 15-year-old daughter “likes to give [him] s---” and refuses to watch Good Will Hunting because it “might be good.” Read what he had to say below:
"She doesn't want to see any movies that I'm in that she thinks might be good. She just likes to give me s---. My daughter said, 'Hey remember that movie you did, The Wall?' I said, 'It was called The Great Wall.' She goes, 'Dad, there was nothing great about that movie.' She keeps my feet firmly on the ground."
According to Damon, his daughters do more than keep him grounded - they’ve also changed him as an actor. He said he doesn’t “have to reach for any emotions, whether it's joy or whether it's pain, because it's all just nearby because the stakes are so much higher when you have kids." This emotional access no doubt added to Damon’s performance as a desperate father in Stillwater. Damon also shared that he and his family have a “two-week rule” that they’re not allowed to be apart for longer than two weeks while he’s working, a rule they broke while he was filming Stillwater but quickly reinstated.
Family is clearly a top priority for Damon, and though at least one of his daughters may enjoy teasing him, he certainly doesn’t seem to mind. It may very well be strange for his children to watch their father in a film made when he was closer in age to them than to his current self. Almost 25 years after it was released, Good Will Hunting remains a fan favorite, and is still relevant - just recently, it was revealed that MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings actors auditioned with a Good Will Hunting monologue. Odds are pretty decent that Damon’s daughter will watch Good Will Hunting eventually - though whether she’ll give her dad the satisfaction of admitting it was good remains the be seen.
Source: CBS Sunday Morning (via EW)