Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Take a Friendship Quiz

What role of yours could I have done better?

[Matt and Ben chuckling]

Hi, this is Matt Damon. [popping music]

I'm Ben Affleck. [popping music]

This is The GQ Friendship Quiz.

When did we first meet?

I remember we were on Cottage Street

on his street. [popping music]

I was new to the neighborhood,

and my mom brought me around because she knew your mom.

She went over to say hi,

and you were eight and Casey would've been five.

But we knew each other,

we'd see each other at the park all the time,

and then in high school we became really close.

Correct. [chuckling]

[Matt] Right. [chuckling]

I would say that gets to point,

[bell dinging] out of a point.

Okay. What was my first job ever?

Your first job was probably

Voyage of the Mimi. [popping music]

That was a educational show on PBS or WGBH-

Correct.

We worked together once we were in high school.

Yeah. [sighing] For the summers,

we worked in construction,

we worked in movie theater. Construction, yeah,

movie theater, yeah. [popping music]

We worked at Croissant Du Jour.

[popping music] Mm-hmm.

You handed out flyers for a lady shoes-

Dance Plus. [popping music]

Yeah. [chuckling] I guess they thought

you were gonna- I got five customers-

Yeah, it didn't work out. [Matt chuckling]

[bell dinging] A full point,

absolutely. [sighing]

What role did I play in The Visit in high school?

You played my son.

I did, son of a bitch. [Matt chuckling]

And it really set the bad precedent for our relationship.

My character's name was Anton Shill.

I think I was Carl.

Was it Carl? Carl, I think

because I remember you being like, Carl! [chuckling]

Not, you didn't do it like that.

I remember one night,

I literally have this memory of one night, the play was,

it was a three-hour play.

Yeah, absolutely. And boy,

I was not making it shorter,

I was like, [Ben chuckling]

[chuckling] I literally remember-

You thought you really just enjoyed the-

Oh, I was just in it, [Ben mumbling]

and you made this upstage turn, and it's just quite,

you just hear coughing and poor parents

who I meant doing this to. [Ben chuckling]

And I just remember looking upstage at you

and your back was turned.

You were supposed to be like upset

and looking out the window in a huff.

And I remember thinking,

I really wish I was him right now.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

Like I got another full act to get through.

This is not going well.

That was punishing for the audience,

that should have. Yeah, it must have been.

What's my Dunkin' order?

Well, it definitely used to be

a Large Regular. [popping music]

[cue card clicking] That's it.

[bell dinging] I mean, it's the variations

on the theme, but it's Regular,

iced or not depends on the weather.

Depends on the weather.

I'm always waiting to see like,

hey, me from the commercials.

Sometimes it's just like,

and he is like, sometimes people are kinda like,

What are you doing here? [chuckling]

My favorite Dunkin' commercial that he did was,

he took over a drive-thru in Medford, Massachusetts.

And it was all real people coming in

on their way to work getting coffee,

and Ben spent the whole time telling them

that they didn't have coffee, [Ben chuckling]

and he was getting in arguments with the people.

One guy when he pulled up,

he goes, I knew it was fucking you.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

What do I do that annoys you the most?

You're late. [popping music]

True. [bell dinging]

I dunno if that's the thing that annoys him the most,

but that's true. Probably doesn't annoy

me the most. [Ben chuckling]

I was kind of used to it at this point.

It's a good safe answer though.

Without looking at your phone,

what is my last text you'd say?

Last night you were,

uh, I think you said,

I'm 40 minutes away. [popping music]

You and Violet were coming over to watch the [indistinct]

Correct.

Yeah. One point.

This is a good one.

What's my favorite thing about you?

Well, I mean, do you have a minute?

[Ben chuckling]

[popping music] My dad.

I mean, it's not necessarily about you,

but it's definitely worth a full point.

You have a friendship for a long time.

It's like, it's not usually hinged on like,

You know what, you're a good tipper.

[Matt chuckling] And if that wasn't the case,

fuck it, I'm out.

Matt's a great guy,

that just means a whole lot of things,

but none of, it's just gonna come off as

schmaltzy and pandering if we...

And probably your audience

would get turned off- It's gonna look like

one of those like, Sir, you are the greatest myth.

Yeah, that was really self-aggrandizing

[Matt chuckling] two person interviews.

Well, you are a genius.

You are a genius, sir. [Matt mumbling]

What was my first car?

Ah, the Corona. [popping music]

Ah, damn, yes. Brown Corona with the holes

in the floor. Yeah.

[car honking] I wish you had that wrong,

but yes, that is a full point.

Brown 1977 Toyota Corona. Most people don't know...

People think Corolla, right, 'cause that's the well-known.

They had another car called the Corona.

And that car actually ended up getting impounded,

you got towed.

And then Ben saw the guy from the tow yard driving the car

[Ben chuckling] around the city,

which was great because he couldn't afford to get it

out of the tow yard.

[Ben chuckling]

[chuckling] And that was how he squared it up with them,

he was just like, Just keep the car.

[Ben and Matt chuckling] Because it was completely...

Yeah, I bought it for $400,

and then yeah, I owed more on-

You owed more than

you had bought it for. So we were good,

they kept it. They kept it.

[chuckling] Yep, full point.

What's my proudest moment?

Well, I mean, obviously the births of your kids.

[popping music] There it is.

Very easy answer.

Who would make me star-struck?

So yeah, you've met MJ. Yeah.

[popping music] Yeah.

That was definitely a big star-struck moment,

Michael Jordan. [bell dinging]

Probably, I done in ways that I later on I'm like,

So stupid, why did you say that?

Hopefully I've gotten to a place where I can be,

not like prevail on someone's time too much,

or be inappropriate and just be respectful.

I was really thrilled and honored,

and definitely very star-struck

that he took the time to sit down with me

and talk about the story and the movie,

and really grateful and...

Being in front of Michael Jordan,

like especially in private and talking to him is a yes.

It's very- And he changed the story

and the script based on

that conversation too. Yeah.

And we just took what he gave me

and implemented into the script and...

Yeah, it's an interesting thing

when you meet a person that's so impressive to watch

who is so kind of...

[sighing] I don't know, heroics of great and...

It does cause a certain feeling.

I mean, when we were after high school,

we drove to French Lick, Indiana,

to try to meet Larry Bird. [popping music]

Well, we knew he was

at the Barcelona Olympics. No, we didn't,

they told us when we got there, remember?

I knew he was at the Olympics,

we just wanted to go to his house.

We rang the bell, and they were like, he's at-

He's in Barcelona. Yeah. [chuckling]

He's at the other place. He was in practice

in Lake Portland I think. Oh, that's right,

they hadn't left yet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they weren't playing. We didn't go to

his house- Yeah.

We got a picture at his gate.

Yeah, we were, that's-

And by the way, nobody in French Lick was at all surprised

when they saw we were in my car,

and it had Massachusetts plates.

And I think we came out in the morning

and these guys were just sitting out there like,

Y'all here to see Larry?

[crew member, Ben and Matt chuckling]

And we were like, Yes sir, we are.

And he is like, All right, you go down there,

you make a right on Peach Street.

And told us where he lived.

Yeah, and he said, Just go down.

And we said, Well, how will we know

it's his house? [Ben chuckling]

And the guy goes, You can't miss it,

it's the nicest house in Indiana.

[Ben chuckling] And sure enough-

Yeah. We drove down-

And it also had a huge, full court basketball-

Yeah. Court in the front yard,

so it was like that was-

That's probably Larry's house.

Yeah. But yeah.

What scene that we've done together

was the hardest for me to get through?

I think when we did Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

[chuckling] That's definitely true.

We could not get through that scene without laughing.

That's a bonus point for that.

Yeah. That was a good pick, yeah.

[bell dinging] We did a satire of

Good Will Hunting called,

a sequel called Hunting Season.

I mean, working with somebody that, A, is really good;

and B, who you really like and respect makes,

it's like actually quite a bit easier to get through or do,

it's like a real luxury.

So the scenes that I remember doing,

if you've all been like,

them had fun and felt good.

So like this movie Rip coming out on Netflix is,

[Matt chuckling] we had some fun scenes

and one of them actually was

technically the toughest ones to get through

'cause there was a lot of like fighting

and wrestling and stuff like that, although-

So we had a- Trained stunt performers.

[Ben and Matt chuckling] Yeah.

I suppose that would qualify if we had done our own.

Any of those stunts. [Ben chuckling]

Describe my ideal day off.

You'd just be with your kids.

[popping music]

You know what, kind of whatever they wanna do,

I don't really get to drive that agenda.

Like lately, this is heaven,

my son has gotten interested in watching like

the great classic movies.

In fact, I was just telling him that earlier.

So A, I hang out with my son, which is amazing,

and anytime, I've got three kids,

and that's really the kind of the joy in my life

and to spend time with them.

But now he's like wanting to watch these great movies,

so I'm getting to watch all the classic movies over again

and kind of see them for the first time through his eyes.

And so, that's really heaven,

but I kind of do anything with the kids,

it's kind of part of parenting,

it's just sort of being there and present with them

and seeing what they wanna do.

What role of yours do you think I could have done better?

All of them.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

Say 10.

10 points. He gets a 10-

That's a 10 point answer. He might win.

What's my dream role?

I couldn't narrow down what the exact role would be,

but it would be a very meaty lead

[popping music] in a movie directed

by probably a list of 10 directors

that are out there that we both know-

Yeah, yeah, he's right. [Matt mumbling]

What street was my first LA apartment on?

Cherokee. [popping music]

Cherokee is right.

[bell dinging] One point.

That was...

I lived in that apartment. Yeah.

It was a two-bedroom apartment,

you and Derrick Bridgeman-

Mm-hmm. Were living there.

And then when I moved in,

I get to the couch and- Mm-hmm.

We were only there for like

three or four weeks. Yeah, absolutely.

Cherokee right off between Hollywood-

We did get offered crack every time

we went to the grocery store,

and that was really interesting.

We had a competition, in the four weeks we were there

to see who could get to the corner store

and back without getting offered crack.

And I won because I made it to the store

and almost all the way back before getting offered crack.

All right, oh, you're up, buddy,

you're in the hot seat. Oh, shit!

What's my middle name?

Paige. Yeah, yeah.

[mumbling] Believe it or not. point.

What did I think I was gonna be when I grew up?

An actor. Yep.

What's a role I wanted,

but didn't get? [popping music]

Well, what Dead Poets Society?

Yeah. The lead in

Dead Poets Society.

Yeah, I mean, there's...

And also I would say interestingly like

for this coming year, I think,

although I don't know how explicitly you ever said it,

I always had the sense

that you really wanted to be the lead

in one of Chris's movies. [popping music]

Oh yeah. And really,

and then got the chance to do that,

and did a bunch of, or a couple of supporting roles.

Not those roles weren't good or that,

and that kind of encouraged this.

And so it was very nice to see you get that part

and get that chance, so

He did called me when we did Interstellar together,

'cause that's a small part in Interstellar.

He called me and he goes...

And I read the script and I thought,

it was absolutely great, and I loved it.

We got on the phone and he goes,

You know how there's that saying,

'There are no small parts, only small actors.'

And I said, Yeah.

And he goes, This is a small part.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

I'm stealing that.

That's a brilliant line. [Matt chuckling]

What was my best subject in school?

I mean, well, theater-

Yeah. And drama,

[popping music] but also very good at English.

[bell dinging] A very good student, very...

Why don't I direct?

Good fucking question.

You're the CEO of the company, man,

gimme a job. [popping music]

Do you know really why he doesn't direct is

because like, it's hard to compete

with the kind of movie acting opportunities

that he has. [popping music]

Case in point like The Odyssey, right?

Well, that comes along, whatever.

No directing opportunity is gonna sort of compete with that.

First of all, a first time out,

it's like everybody is, the knives get sharpened,

and it's a lot of work, and it's very time...

Also the being away from your kids

[popping music] and the time-consuming

nature of it, I actually think is the main reason.

If you didn't have to do it,

you'd have directed a long time ago,

but like your time is precious already,

already sometimes have to be traveling,

and obviously Luci is like doing a ton,

and just it's not easy.

And I think that you would've definitely...

And I've tried a few times to be like,

hey, what about this?

I think Matt would be a phenomenal director,

like a really, really good director.

No question.

But there's a time, like you have so much time

and one of the things about life is like,

we both learn, I think is,

you only get these years once

with your children at these various age.

And we're looking at that,

they were in that final stage, right?

Like that last kind of, for me three and a half-

Yeah, I think four- A little-

Three, four years you might- Yeah.

You actually, I think I can see you doing it.

[bell dinging]

I can't see you doing it before then,

I just don't think so.

How do I know when you're mad at me?

I don't know, but you just do.

[popping music] [Matt chuckling]

I don't have to say it.

And that's what makes it really...

I give you a point for that. [Ben chuckling]

What's my hidden talent?

Like there's a couple of answers to that.

One, I would say is that, like as an actor,

I think Matt takes a very self-effacing

and not showy approach to it.

So doing very difficult,

what I consider to be very difficult things,

making them look effortless,

and it's very hard to do.

So I would say like-

It's my unimpressive acting. Within his talent.

[Ben chuckling] That is the most...

I was trying to find

a way to say it. Explain it.

It didn't come off that way.

I think a lot of critics would agree with you.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

Matt, he's a very good athlete.

I would say also Matt's like

a very good mediator. [popping music]

Like if you were gonna send somebody to say like,

we have to have somebody go talk to this person

because they're like in North Korea

and they're gonna attack us with nuclear weapons,

or they're causing some problem or what,

or to broker some dispute,

like Matt would probably the first person

that I would select, he's very good

at understanding other people and communicating with them

and kind of understanding what their agenda is,

and doing it in a way that doesn't make feel attacking.

And then can,

where he doesn't present his own kind of agenda.

It's just a, I think that's a real skill.

Nuclear diplomat. There you go.

I said it right here. It's 10 points.

Yep.

What's my favorite restaurant and what do I order?

Fucked if I know. [popping music]

I mean, what do you... [buzzer buzzing]

I mean, it's all- Well, you'd have to go back.

It's all gluten-free, and-

You'd have to go back to

like Moody's or to- [popping music]

Oh yeah, [indistinct] like- Village Pizza.

Village Pizza, yeah,

the chicken wing plate of Village Pizza.

I mean, whether it was our favorite,

it was the only one nearby

that we could afford. [Matt mumbling]

We could afford. The two kind of became

the same thing. Koo Koo Roo for a long time.

[chuckling] Koo Koo Roo,

that's right. [bell dinging]

Well, this is an easy one.

Between us who would win at poker?

Probably me. [popping music]

Yeah.

Ben 21 years ago

won the California State Poker Championship.

That meant he had to beat a lot of

really, really famous pros.

They were all in that, all the guys

[Ben mumbling] whose books to be read and...

[Ben sighing] Yeah, but so,

he's a hell of a poker player.

What's my favorite thing to do when back in Boston?

Well, I used to go back to Boston,

obviously to see your dad

[popping music] and hang out with him.

We'd go, just kick around- Just working off-

Yeah. And hang out.

And he was just that guy,

[bell dinging] it's like you just want to

spend time with him.

What is the key to a 40 plus year friendship?

Good luck, I don't know,

uh, Good Will. [popping music]

Little [mumbling] Oh, I love it,

[Ben chuckling] I love it.

How many films have we collaborated on together?

Good Will. [gentle music]

I was an extra in Glory Daze.

Yep, Field of Dreams.

Field of Dreams. The Good Mother.

Good Mother.

Uh, the...

Dogma. Chasing Amy.

Chasing Amy.

Um, Dogma.

Um, the Hunting- Yeah, yeah.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

It's eight.

Um...

Uh...

Oh, The Last Duel,

Air. The Last Duel, Air.

[gentle music] This one.

Now you're up to 11. [popping music]

Yeah.

I don't know, something like that.

I mean, we could...

The extra work go on and on,

we did a lot of extra work together.

It says 14. [buzzer buzzing]

No point. Means we're

losing our marks.

[Matt chuckling] Yeah.

What's one thing I have to do before filming?

A tiniest bit of research.

[Ben and Matt chuckling]

I've never seen him not prepare for a role yet,

[Matt chuckling] although that day might come.

Yeah, I would say research. [popping music]

Yeah, that's fair

because I don't have like a lucky meal

or anything like that. Yeah.

What's the compliment you gave me that I appreciated most?

Matt's a great, great father,

[popping music] and just knowing him,

I would think that if he were the kind of person

to sit around and marinate in compliments,

that would be one that he might be apt to reflect.

I was looking for something more about me.

Well, it's, yeah- Me.

[Ben chuckling] [Matt mumbling]

I thought we were working on that.

[Matt chuckling]

What's my favorite thing about you?

I don't know,

probably being a good dad, [popping music]

or being, I mean, something like that, is my guess.

You are right. [chuckling] [bell dinging]

Then all right. [Ben and Matt chuckling]

Would I save you or Jimmy Kimmel first?

That's easy.

[popping music] I mean,

with me, you're your worst enemy.

Yeah. I think I have

to rate above that. Fucking 10 points

for that one. Fuck Kimmel!

I mean, guys-

Fuck the guy! He's just luggage.

Those are all the questions.

I got this many points. [bell dinging]

And I got this many points. [bubbling music]

[bell dinging] Bull shit!

It was all about the last answer.

I guess so. [crew member chuckling]

Oh! Because I gave him 10

for the last one. [Ben chuckling]

Fucking Jimmy Kimmel.

[chuckling] Fuck Jimmy, yeah. Jimmy Kimmel,

fuck you, yeah.

If he finds a way to hurt you-

He does, he does. Doesn't he?

He has that gift. [Matt mumbling]

He's just- No.

He haunts you in his ways.

[upbeat music]