Before Ben Affleck and Matt Damon became two of Hollywood’s biggest names, simply paying the rent was part of the equation. But even when million-dollar offers started arriving, Damon was apparently willing to walk away if he did not believe in the movie, a decision Affleck once thought was completely insane. Years later, the actor admits his longtime best friend had the right idea all along.

During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Ben Affleck revealed that he and Matt Damon had completely different survival strategies during their early years in Hollywood. While Affleck was ready to accept almost any role that paid the bills, Damon would reject movies he did not believe in, even when the money was difficult to ignore. Affleck admitted that he once thought his friend was crazy for walking away from those opportunities, only to realize years later that Damon had understood the importance of choosing the right projects all along.

"We're broke. I'll take whatever pays. Matt was different. He'd turn down movies he didn't believe in, and I thought he was crazy. Looking back, I realized he was right. It's incredibly hard to say no when someone offers you a million dollars, but choosing the right projects matters more," Affleck said on The Howard Stern Show.

The financial confidence behind Damon’s selectiveness was hardly built on a Hollywood fortune, as the pair simply had enough shared money to keep the rent covered. Even after selling Good Will Hunting for $600,000, their dreams of being rich forever quickly collided with agent fees and roughly $160,000 in taxes from each share, leaving them with far less than expected.

Going broke took them six months, but the movie behind that disappearing fortune was about to make Hollywood remember their names forever.

How Good Will Hunting changed everything?

Good Will Hunting follows Will Hunting, a troubled MIT janitor who shocks the academic world by secretly solving a near-impossible mathematical problem. After a street fight lands him in legal trouble, Will begins therapy with Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, who slowly breaks through the young genius’s carefully built emotional walls. Matt Damon led the film alongside Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgard.

Made for around $10 million, the film grossed more than $225 million worldwide and earned nine Academy Award nominations. Damon and Affleck won Best Original Screenplay, while Williams took home the only Oscar of his legendary career for Best Supporting Actor. The two friends who had recently burned through their first Hollywood payday were suddenly standing on the industry’s biggest stage. However, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recently reunited on screen for the gritty cop thriller The Rip.

And while Ben Affleck may once have thought Matt Damon was crazy for saying no, decades of carefully chosen projects have made that early lesson difficult to argue with.

Do you think Matt Damon was right to turn down huge paychecks for the right roles? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Lisa Roy

Edited by

Aliza Siddiqui