Ben Affleck and Matt Damon shared a bank account to fund early acting auditions
Actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have opened up about their lifelong friendship in a new interview. While sitting down with The Ringer founder Bill Simmons on his eponymous podcast, Affleck and Damon shared stories about their days as aspiring actors in Boston.
“It was unusual, but we needed the money for auditions,” Damon said, explaining that sharing an account was “a weird thing in retrospect.”
“We were going to help each other and be there for each other,” Affleck said. “It was like, ‘You’re not going to be alone. I’m not going to be alone. Let’s go out there and do this together.’”
The pair would often put their combined earnings from their respective roles into the account, which they used to pay bills on their shared apartment. “As long as one of us had money we knew the power wasn’t going to get shut off,” Damon claimed. “After doing [1992′s] Geronimo I probably had 35 grand in the bank. I was like ‘we’re good for a year.’”
“You were allowed to go to [auditions in] New York with the money,” Damon added. “You were allowed to take out $10 and get quarters and go to [the arcade] and play video games. Eventually, we were allowed to try to buy beer, which never fucking worked.”
Damon and Affleck are co-starring in the upcoming film Air, with the longtime friends producing and Affleck directing.
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