Winning an Oscar is usually a career-defining moment, but for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, one part of that night still makes them cringe. More than two decades after taking home Academy Awards for Good Will Hunting, the duo’s acceptance speech remains a source of secondhand embarrassment for them. In a recent interview, they candidly revisited what went wrong and why it all felt overwhelming at the time.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recall their ‘disorganized’ Oscar speech for Good Will Hunting
Looking back on their Oscar win, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck can laugh now, but the acceptance speech still makes them cringe a little. On The Howard Stern Show, Affleck admitted the moment lives rent-free in his head. He joked that he kept thanking Boston over and over and now wonders why he did that.
Damon explained that the fiasco occurred because they hadn’t planned a single word. They honestly never thought they’d win, so they didn’t write anything. He joked that if they’d prepared and lost, they’d still be roasting each other decades later for it. So when their names were actually announced, it was instant panic.
Damon shoved Affleck toward the mic and said, “I’m not doing it.” “Honestly, each of us knew deep down that if we had that conversation and didn’t win, in 50 years we’d be at some bar in Boston going ‘Can you f’ing believe we f’ing wrote an Oscars speech? You jackass,” Damon added (via EW).
Affleck was completely frozen in that moment. Standing there with an Oscar in his hands, he couldn’t stop thinking, “What am I even supposed to say?” Looking back, he admitted a little prep might’ve saved them, especially since the whole thing was way more overwhelming than they expected. At one point onstage, he even turned to Damon and blurted out that winning felt “really, really scary.”
The win itself was huge. Good Will Hunting, released in 1997, scored Damon and Affleck the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It also earned Robin Williams a Best Supporting Actor win for playing Will’s counselor.
Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya for ComingSoon.
