Jania Ashlynn
In the latest edition of PEOPLE magazine, Damon, who acts alongside his long-time friend in the new movie Air, talks about how he turned to Affleck for support after they became famous in 1997 following the success of their movie Good Will Hunting.
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Longtime Friends
Damon says his friendship with Affleck is “everything to me,” admitting that life in the spotlight would be “unimaginably harder” without him.
“It’s been really helpful to check in with Ben throughout this whole surreal process over the last 25 years. I think the shock of becoming famous is so… I mean, that messed me up for a couple years,” Damon shared.
He continued, “Because the whole world just starts to treat you differently. And so your subjective experience changes. It’s like somebody rewrites your code in the Matrix, but just your code. “It’s like, ‘Oh, my whole experience has been altered in this really overwhelming way.’ And so to have somebody who I’ve known my whole life who I can be like, ‘Hey man, is this happening to you? Are you…?’ And to check in with him, it was really, really helpful. Stabilizing.”
More Love
Affleck had quite a bit to say about their friendship as well. “Having Matt has meant the world. It’s not just Matt. It’s Matt’s dad who I adore and love enormously. He passed away recently. And his mom and stepdad, his brother. His kids, who just came to the premiere and made me want to burst into tears because they’re so beautiful and grown up and amazing. You get to be part of somebody’s whole life in that way. It’s been an enormous gift.”
Affleck and Damon met when they were 8 and 10 years old, living two blocks away from each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They quickly became friends when they found out they both liked baseball and acting. They’ve been navigating the industry together for several decades.
Their newest project, Air, is now playing in theaters.
