Ben Affleck Cringes When He Reads His Interviews From After ‘Good Will Hunting’

Ben Affleck’s career exploded after the release of Good Will Hunting. He went from a struggling actor to an Oscar winner, and soon career opportunities flooded in. Because of the film’s widespread success, though, Affleck said people assumed he shared similarities with his character. He said that the way he tried to counteract this now makes him cringe.

Ben Affleck admitted he has a hard time reading interviews from after ‘Good Will Hunting’

In Good Will Hunting, Affleck starred as Matt Damon’s best friend. While Damon’s character was a genius, Affleck’s was not. He said that people began to think he was unintelligent in real life because of the role. 

“[W]hat I didn’t realize when we made that movie was that everybody who saw that movie would more or less assume that we were those characters,” he told GQ. “I really thought, Oh, I’ll turn in a performance as this guy, and the more convincing it is, the better it will be for me, because the whole goal of that movie, really for Matt and I in terms of why we started, was to get work as actors. It was very easy to convince people since it was the first time they saw me that that was exactly who I was.”

To counteract that, Affleck said he tried to sound intelligent in interviews after the film.

“The thing about that is, I’ve read some interviews of mine from back then, and I kind of think: This is a person who’s trying to use the longest words that they know,” he said. “I felt a little bit like my grandfather. I was trying to be like, ‘Look, I’m not stupid. Look, I’m smart.’”

When he looks back on it, Affleck admits he feels embarrassed.

“Which is unfortunate because that energy of, ‘Look at me, look, I’m this, look I’m that,’ always has the opposite effect,” he said. “It’s like, why is this guy selling me this car so hard?”

Ben Affleck had to adjust to a new life after ‘Good Will Hunting’

Because of the success of Good Will Hunting, Affleck suddenly found himself in the spotlight. He said this was a bizarre place to be.

“It was somebody else’s life,” he said. “And it took me a long time actually to be able to harmonize that sense. So I do remember that shift, to answer your question. I remember feeling very small. And then I didn’t feel big, but I felt thrust out in front.”

He didn’t know how to behave, and often felt foolish. 

“I remember feeling not sure,” he said. “Like: How does a person behave? What does a person do? How does a person handle this?” 

He noted that it took time to adjust to fame because there was no set path for him.

He said the film’s success was thanks to another film

Good Will Hunting was a big success, which Affleck thinks was a result of the movie released the same month. 

“Good Will Hunting came out — we were coming out the same month as another film, which I was told was a disaster and was going to be a terrible bomb, which was Titanic,” he said. “Not a bomb!”

Titanic was a record-breaking box office success. When people got to the theater and learned it was sold out, they had another option: Good Will Hunting.

“But actually it was such a phenomenal success that I think it really helped our movie because I think people would go to see Titanic and it would be sold out and they’d be like, ‘F***, what else is here? I guess we’ll see the Boston kids in that movie with Robin Williams.’”