Ben Affleck says he and Matt Damon “were broke” after ‘Good Will Hunting’
Ben Affleck claims that he and longtime friend Matt Damon spent all the money that the pair made from writing the 1997 film Good Will Hunting in just six months.
Affleck shared the revelation on The Drew Berrymore Show. The actor and director was promoting his recent film Air, which reunites him and Damon on screen. While there, Affleck shared that the script for Good Will Hunting was sold at a high price but he and Damon weren’t smart with their money.
“We sold it for $600,000, we split that, $300,000 each, and then the agents got $30,000 so we had $270,000 and we paid about $160,000 in taxes so we had $110,000, each bought $55,000 Jeep Cherokees and then had $55,000 left,” Affleck said. “Naturally we decided to rent a $5,000 a month party house on Glencoe Way by the Hollywood Bowl and we were broke in six months.”
While appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast earlier this year, Affleck and Damon revealed that they had shared a bank account during their earliest days as actors. “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.’”
“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. 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.”
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