The Oprah Transcript O=Oprah, M=Matt Damon, B=Ben Affleck, R=Robin Williams
O: A month ago nobody new his name, well what a difference one month
makes.
Matt Damon is hot, hot, hot. He is Hollywood's golden boy.
The next big
thing, the face of tommorrow. Starring roles in The Rainmaker
and Good Will
Hunting have catapulted him onto Hollywood's coveted A-list of top young
actors. Well just a couple of years ago he starved himself to
get noticed
in
Courage Under Fire. He's not starving anymore. Directors
are throwing
scripts his way, critics are singing his praises and that oscar buzz
has
begun. The story of Good Will Hunting sounds like a movie itself.
They're
two life long best friends, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, wrote a script
and
after years of sweat and struggle they finally got the script made and
not
its
this huge movie called Good Will Hunting. Please welcome
Matt Damon and
Ben
Affleck. (they come in) Well the people say you're (refferring
to matt)
hot.
They say your smoking. Now the people arn't quite sure what that
means.
What
does that mean?
Audience member: I love his smile
O: oh my god, his smile. Now is this what you thought would happen
during
the
days when you were spammin' it?
M: No, not even close. Actually Robin used to scream on the set.
R: (screaming) Its Matt, Its Ben. He's so hot. Oh!!!!
O: Has it always been this way, Ben, he's the one who gets all the
attention?
B: Always, all the time, yeah you know....
M: I don't know what you're talking about.
O: I think this is the coolest thing cause everybody knows that I have
a
best
friend, Gayle. I think what would it be like if we ended up writing
the
script that became the hugest hit. What does it feel like now?
M: I can't wrap my brain around it, actually. It's just so amazing.
If
you
could have seen us a couple of years ago we really had nothing.
We had
nothing.
O: What's nothing?
M: Well he (refferring to Ben) was living on my couch.
B: I'm still living on the couch
M: And we couldn't really make the rent and uh...
O: You were friends since you were what? 8?
M & B: yeah
O: That is the sweetest thing.
B: I was 8 and Robin was 32 and he and the rest of the guys took us
in.
(jokingly)
O: So you've been buddies and lived in 10 different apartments, I hear.
M & B: yeah
O: And you wrote the script when you (refferring to matt) were in school.
M: Yeah, I was in college and and started writing it in english class
and
didn't know what to do with it, so I showed it to Ben and we kind
of decided
to write it together. We really wanted to take our time with it
so we put
it
on the shelf for about a year and then eventually one night we were
up
probably doing nothing productive and we just started talking and the
script
poured out from there.
O: How did you start the process, Ben, to sell it?
B: You know the process of trying to sell it is sort of like it either
happens
or it doesn't. We already had agents as actors and you know, I
think we
weren't the first actors to tell their agent, like you know, we wrote
a
script.
O: Right, everybody does.
B: Luckily he was a nice enough guy to read it, and then decided well
you
know, its not any worse than any of the other scripts and so he just
decided
to try to sell it, and its not you know, i guess it's like publishing
or
a lot
of things you know, the agents just sort of send it out to people and
then
you
know, through using smoke and mirrors and lying to them you know this
is
great
you gotta read this. Eventually they get somebody to read it
and you know
they do whatever it is they do to get people to buy it.
O: Where were you guys when you found out it was sold?
M: We were at our house in Los Angeles and uh our agent actually came
to
the
house. It was like such a big thing. He was there and he
was kind of
finishing it up um the deal on the phone. The phone rang and
we thought
it
was them and we picked up the phone like Hello (nervously). And um
it was
a
call for our friend from highschool. Some Girl, and he gets on the
phone
and
he's like "hey, how ya doing" we're like hang it up, hang up the phone.
So
you know we were...Thank god for these agents too because we really
would
have
taken anything that was offered so they stopped telling us kind of
what was
happening until the very end because it happened over a four day period.
O: And you would've taken anything?
M: Oh anything.
O: Like....what?
M: Like a piece of chicken.
R: So you work for parts? The colonel sends over a bucket of
chicken. It's
all yours. Here you go, and for a breast I'll give you everything.
Sold
buddy.
O: And so you got lots of money for it. I'm not gonna ask what
you got but
you got more money than you expected?
M: More money than we ever had
B: More money than we earned in a lifetime
O: really
B: Yeah, which is you know 20,000 dollars, Oprah. $20,000.
O: Cause you're no where without the words. People pay
a lot of money for
scripts in Hollywood. They do because you're no where without
the words.
M: And they paid us a lot less then they would've, if we had not been
in
it.
B: That's the thing. The really sort of outrageous thing
was that nobody
new
who we were and they said "this is great. We could get some really
good
actors for this." and we're like no, no, no we're the actors.
And they
were
like "yo, you're the actors. That's sweet, that's cute."
O: So how hard was that to do--it is one thing to have a script, it's
another
thing to be able to do it your way.
M: yeah, it took 5 years.
O: To find somebody who will do it your way?
M: Right, and we found Gus Van Sant, who we think is the greatest director
around, and he did it our way.
B: And the script got kicked around for a long time. And Harvey
Weinstein
and
Miramax really sort of rescued us and helped us and let us say--you
know
do it
in a way--not our way but get somebody like Gus who we thought would
be
terriffic and let him do it his way.
O: Now whose decision was it to call up the crazy guy here (referring
to
Robin)?
B: I don't know, somebody who over ruled me, I can tell you that
right now.
R: Send it to Jack. It would've been a lot different. So
it's all about
your
problems, buddy.
O: You all do--you (Ben) really don't have any scenes as I can
recall right
now, with Robin, but you (Matt) have some marvelous scenes with Robin.
M: Its actually interesting that you showed that scene where he was
talking
about his wife and her sleep.
B: And her flatulence.
M: Because that was a good example of something that Robin did a lot
cause
in
that scene--
B: It was a struggle. It's like Robin open up. You can
improvise you can
do
your own thing. You're so shy.
R: Thank you master Affleck. Just get me a piece of chicken.
I'll work.
O: So..
M: So, Robin just started talking about his wife farting, and I just
started
laughing so that scene is just us really laughing..
O: So that's not what you wrote?
M: No, no.
R: So that's a disclaimer for those watching at home.
B: It a scene from Robin's life, that he wanted to share.
R: Oh god. (laughing). He's kidding.
B: His wife's back there watching. I'm gonna go backstage after
like, how
did
you like the--(fake slapping himself)
R: Sit down, boy. The truth is the thing is so good, it
didn't need--that
was probably the only time I really opened up like that, because
the writing
is so good you don't have to add anything to it. Improvising with
great
is
like putting tits on a bull, not that a bull's not going nice.
But I think
it
was--the writing was so strong--every word--I mean there's that speech
by
the
swan boats that is so powerful that it doesn't need anything--and even
then
you just want to make everything correct.
O: What was it like hearing Robin say the words that you guys had written
years ago for the first time.
M: Oh that was amazing. Well the first day that it had happened
it was pretty
emotional actually cause we went to the set and we went as writers,
which
we
never had done before because we're actors, and we kind of showed up
like
"we
wrote it"
B: Which in Hollywood is kind of like, we cooked those steak'em sandwiches.
It's like you're the writer, good, you wanna just stand away from the
action.
O: Leave the actors alone, yeah.
M: And we watched Robin and this actor Stellin Skarsgard, who played
the
professor who is wonderful Swedish actor um we showed up and we're just
kind
of standing there and watching Robin. The scene started and they
said scene
41 take 41. Roll, sound, speed, marker, action. By the time
they said action
tears were just falling down my face. I couldn't believe it, and
he started
to talk and I looked up at Ben, and Ben's doing it too. It was
a really
profound moment for me. it was like 5 years of our lives, and
it would not
have happened if Robin didn't do it.
O: Good Will Hunting, you know that all comes through on the screen,
you
know
all of that--I think that the passion and the energy and the kind of
commitment. All of that comes through on the screen, although
we didn't
know
this particular story. Don't you feel that? You feel that
kind of love
and
commitment, and everybody says when they're watching the movie, he
wrote
this,
did you know he wrote this, they wrote this, oh my goodness.
Next they're not only talented and going to be really really rich,
really
really soon, they're single and lately been linked to some of Hollywood's
most
beautiful women.
O: Ok. Here's the love life segment. Let's talk about your
love lifes change
since you hit it big. Has anything changed?
B: Let's not Oprah. Let's not talk about that...Not really you
know, I'm
still just standing out there going like, hi I'm Ben, nice to meet you,
and
just walk on by. But this guy(Matt), he's on fire. Let me
tell you.
O: Did he (Ben) just slide over that way. That was good.
Boy are you happy
(refferring to a screaming audience member). So nothing's changed?
Nobody
you wanna talk about dating or anything?
B: Just Robin and that whole thing, but it almost broke up his marriage.
(joking around)
R: One night
O: What's changed for you (Matt)?
M: Well I'm single, (pauses while audience screams). I was with
Minnie for
awhile, but we're not romantically involved anymore. We're just
really good
friends. I love her dearly.
R: The lines are open. Line 2.
O: It's really easy to fall in love with your leading lady though,
isn't
it?
M: Um, I don't know. I haven't done that much to kind of have
any sense
of
whether or not that will happen again.
O: But are you guys friends til the end of the time?
M: Oh yeah. I care about her a lot. We care about each
other a lot. We
just
decided it wasn't meant to be, and if it's not meant to be, then it's
not
meant to be.
O: That's really adult of you.
M: Well, thank you.
O: I'm gonna let you slide (ben).
R: Don't go cobra on me. Mmmmmhmmmm. (joking around) I
won't go there.
O: Tell me this. What did you guys do to celebrate when you first
got the
big
check? What'd you do?
M: Oh, Chris Moore--
B: Chris Moore, a friend of ours who was gonna make the movie kind
of
independently, and for no money, was a really terrific producer, and
believed
in this movie from the very beginning came over to our house and brought
a
bottle of champagne.
M: A bottle of champagne that he had for three years, that somebody
told
him
when something great happens in your career you can open this bottle
of
champagne. So he brought the bottle over.
O: I hear y'all went to Sizzler.
M: Oh, we went to Sizzler.
B: Let me tell you about some all you can eat shrimp at Sizzler.
You know
what I'm saying. We went a little surf and turf. they said $6.99,
then I
was
like you know what? The works.
R: Then someone says I'm sorry sir you have to leave now, we have no
more
shrimp
B: I think we could do a Sizzler commercial. Everyone's like
we're going
to
Disneyworld. We're going to Sizzler.
O: I read somewhere that you (ben) said that you guys are such good
friends,
that he would be the first one you call if you woke up and there was--
B: A dead hooker in my hotel room at 3 am. I said that to people
magazine,
and they wouldn't print it. They called me up like "hi, we're
doing a profile
on Matt Damon and we were wondering, what do you think of Matt.
What's
your
friendship like?" and I said Matt's the first guy I would call if I
woke
up in
a hotel room with a dead hooker. "Thank you, thank you very much."
It's
from
The Godfather, you know, those two guys, the senator and they put the
hooker
in his room and then they kill her and then they set him up. It
was a
reference. It hasn't happened to me, but if it did happen to
me. I would
call Matt. That's friendship.
M: That's the kind of friends we are.
O: And what kind of friend is he(Ben)?
M: You know, he's a pretty good friend. (joking around)
B: I'm the kind of friend who will call you up at 3 in the morning
and say
there's a dead hooker in my room. You know you'd call Gayle if
the same
thing.. you know.
O: Not the same thing. Let's not go there. Did you always
want to be an
actor, I know you(Matt) wrote on your entry to Harvard that
you always
wanted to be an actor. Did you (Ben) always want to be an actor?
B: I was sort of being an actor before I knew it. It was more
for me going
I
kind of like this. It seemed like something--when your
young it's just
about
being comfortable. My mother and father didn't want me to be
an actor.
O: So now that we have this Oscar talk going on for you guys.
Good Will
Hunting is undoubtedly going to be nominated for best original screenplay,
and
what's that gonna be like?
M: Oh, God.
B: I don't know about undoubtedly. I'm just like come on 7.
O: Well you know we get a vote, aren't you nominating it (to Robin)?
R: Yes ma'm.
O: yes
R: I'm nominating myself. Hey. I'm not gonna lie.
O: Yeah, and what does that feel like, even to have the talk about
it.
M: To tell you the truth, it's all been so absurd, that it seems like
the
only
fitting way to kind of put a cap on it all. It's just incredible
for us.
It's absolutely incredible that people are even saying that.
B: It's sort of like stepping into someone else's life. It was
not long
ago,
that we'd be sitting at home and the phone wouldn't be ringing, and
we'd
be
watching Oprah like these guys aren't that good. We're better
than these
guys. You know what I mean? And then all of the sudden you're
out there
and
it's like there's an audience, and its a very surreal very weird sort
of
transition to make.
O: I love Matt's description. It is hard to wrap your brain around
it.
Next
we're gonna find out how Matt almost killed himself for a role.
I heard the president watched it. Did you guys watch this with
the president?
B: We heard the president saw it, and like it.
O: You heard the president saw it?
B: yeah.
M: Anything else and we probably have to kill you or ourselves
O: You know the president saw it though.
R: yes ma'm (imitating secret service)
O: Did the president like it?
R: Yes ma'm we hear that too.
B: If 7 guys in suits and telephone wires show up at your house, you'd
be
all
quiet.
O: But the president saw it?
R: Yes ma'm the president did see it.
O: Did the president say anything to anybody here?
R: He turned to me he said you know Matt's hot. That boy's attractive.
I'd
walk 15 miles in the snow to stand near that man's garbage. That
man is
hot.
You could cook on that man's forehead.
O: That's gotta be a good feeling you know the president of the U.S.
saw
your
film.
M: It's the ultimate feeling.
B: Talk about not being able to wrap your mind around it. You
know what
I
mean? Oh really. B-Bill Clinton the president of the U.S.?
Oh wonderful.
I
voted for him, he saw my movie. You know.
O: It's pretty good. You (matt) lost 40 pounds for Courage Under
Fire?
You
almost killed yourself for that.
M: When the doctor finally sat me down, after and he said the good
news is
that your heart didn't shrink. Then he ran all these test.
I mean I ended
up
on medication for a couple of years.
O: So tell us why.
M: I needed--I wanted the role to be--yeah those aren't the real pictures
(referring to pictures they showed from Courage Under Fire).
O: We're gonna try to find some real ones.
M: It was like a before and after thing. They were shots from
what was
supposed to be from desert storm and then the effect of that and to
show
what
kind of happened to this guy, I wanted to mark a difference so one
was 180
pounds and one was 139 pounds. And the director wanted to cut
from my fact
to
my face to really show the kind of ravaging effect.
O: So what did you do to lose--
M: I ate nothing but egg whites and chicken, and I ran 12.8 miles a
day,
every
day.
O: On egg whites and Chicken?
M: And low carbs, one baked potato to 2 baked potatos a day.
O: you could get real sick doing that.
M: I did. Yeah I did. It was really stupid. Well what happened
at the time
was I wasn't really a big enough actor for the studio to pay for a
nutritionist and I didn't have the money to pay for one so I was like
well
I'm
25. I'll just do it, and so I did.
O: I bet you can get a nutritionist now.
M: It's like suddenly now I don't want a nutritionist, and now they're
giving
me one.
O: We were just talking during the commercial break about how in many
of
the
reviews your name wasn't even mentioned in Courage Under Fire, even
though
you
gave an incredible performance there.
M: I wanted to quit acting after that, and it was Denzel Washington
who would
go out an publicly say this kid--and he would mention me.
O: Were you intimidated first working with Denzel?
M: Oh yeah. I almost couldn't talk. I started--I quote
lines to people
from
their movies. He would--in these scenes I was just sitting across
from
Denzel--
B: (jokingly) Now Denzel's hot, come on.
M: And you know "now at any time did Captain Walden--during the rescue
did
Captain Walden" (imitating Denzel) and he would just kind of start doing
this
thing, and I started doing Malcom X you know "We didn't land on Plymouth
Rock,
Plymouth Rock landed on us" (imitating Denzel) and I started doing
all this
stuff and he started doing it back, and so that kind of a big kick for
me
so
he loosened me up really fast that way.
O: What about when he goes back to the house(talking about good will
hunting)
What about that scene? Oh my goodness
M: When we wrote that scene, it was the hardest acting moment in the
story
with out giving anything away, but that moment on the porch. He
doesn't
say
anything., and it's to be able to--
O: He doesn't verbalize anything but he says everything.
M: Right, right.
O: When we come back, we'll talk about Ben and Matt's new movies.
Saving Private Ryan's pretty good I hear too with Tom Hanks directed
by Steven
Speilberg. You're (matt) in that too? Busy.
M: Yeah that was the chance of a lifetime to work with Speilberg.
Unbelievable. And Mr. Hanks
O: and Mr. Hanks
M: Yeah he's not to shabby either, so that's gonna come out in the
summertime,
and I reall--
O: Speilberg really is a genius, isn't he? He's a fun one.
M: Oh without a doubt. When I first met him and you know I was
on the set,
he
said "you wanna see a movie I made when I was 14? It was my first
war movie."
cause this is a war movie. I said sure, and he shows me this.
It's got
like
dolly shots going into over the shoulder, and I'm sitting there watching
this
thing--at 14 years old and I said wait a minute, did you.. and
he said yeah
I
used that in Raidors.
O: Are you and Speilberg friends (to Robin) you and Steven?
R: Oh yeah
M: Robin introduced me to him.
R: We were shooting in Boston they were shooting Amistad in the commons
and we went over and said hello.
Maybe that was the first time he saw you(to matt)
M: Yeah.
R: He said you know this man is hot.
O: I heard a story that originally he'd seen you in Courage Under Fire
and thought you were too skinny.
M: Yeah.
O: and so he wanted you for Private Ryan but then he saw you at the
lunch with Robin and thought maybe you weren't to skinny.
M: and thought oh yeah, this guy--
O: is normal.
M: He said, do I know you? are you the guy from--and I said yeah.
He said did you gain some weight?
O: We're gonna see you (Ben) in Armegeddon this summer.
B: With Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thorton and Steve Buscemi.]
O: You all are working.
B: and Liv Tyler.
O: Flubber is still out there.
R: Still working. It's fun if its a fun childrens movie
which is great. A little kid walked up in New York after the premiere "Are
you going to platform this or go wide?"
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