This weekend on Sunday TODAY, Willie Geist sat down with actor Matt Damon who talked about being directed by his best friend Ben Affleck in the film “Air.”
“You can waste so much time by trying to be polite,” Damon said. “In the movie business, and in theater, they’ve developed a whole vocabulary for how to talk to somebody. And basically how to tell somebody they’re sucking, right? And, like, we can just say, ‘You suck.’”
Geist’s conversation with Damon marks his 300th original Sunday Sitdown interview. Geist spoke with Damon ahead of the release of his new film “Oppenheimer.”
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CREDIT: NBC NEWS / SUNDAY TODAY WITH WILLIE GEIST WITH AN AIRDATE OF 7/16
The full interview will air on NBC News’ Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist Sunday, July 16.
Matt Damon says he and Ben Affleck have no problem saying ‘you suck’ when working together
“You can waste so much time by trying to be polite,” Damon told TODAY’s Willie Geist.
By: Drew Weisholtz
When you work with your best friend, you can throw all the niceties out the window.
Earlier this year, Matt Damon starred in the movie “Air,” which co-starred his best buddy, Ben Affleck, who also directed the film, about the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker line at Nike. When working with his pal, Damon says he had no issues taking direction.
“It was great,” he told TODAY’s Willie Geist in a preview clip for this weekend’s Sunday Sitdown, airing in full July 16. “You know, great directors really give you the freedom. It’s a collaboration. It’s a partnership.”
Damon and Affleck, of course, have been friends for decades, so their familiarity makes things much easier when trying to be critical.
“You can waste so much time by trying to be polite,” Damon said. “In the movie business, and in theater, they’ve developed a whole vocabulary for how to talk to somebody. And basically how to tell somebody they’re sucking, right? And, like, we can just say, ‘You suck.’”
Damon also laughed at the idea of them softening the criticism, too.
“‘I’m wondering if he feels a little more reserved in this,’” he said in a mimicking tone. “Just tell me I’m overacting. You know what I mean?”
Damon and Affleck became household names 25 years ago in 1997’s “Good Will Hunting.” They both starred in the movie and earned a best original screenplay Academy Award for writing the film, which began as a writing assignment while Damon was a student at Harvard. He showed it to Affleck, who saw potential in it.
“I handed it to Ben. And I was like, ‘What do you think of this?’ He goes, “I don’t know what happens next, but we should do this together,’” Damon said.
Damon and Affleck may have rocketed to superstardom after winning an Oscar, but they were also literally on a plane for Pittsburgh. The duo had to fly to the Steel City the day after the Academy Awards to shoot the film “Dogma” and quickly discovered how big they had become.
“We come off the plane, and there are, like, 30 people in the jetway at the gate waiting for us, cheering,” he said. “And there was this kind of momentary hysteria. It was, ‘Oh, can I have a picture?’ ‘Yeah.’ But Ben and I just sat and talked to everybody for 15 minutes or so.”
Damon said he and Affleck also quickly learned that day just how fickle fame can be when they rode a tram with some fans.
“We’re on the tram with these 30 people — they’ve all completely lost interest in us,” he said. “We’re sitting there, and Ben goes, ‘Can you believe this s—?’ He goes, ‘That was it. Now we got 15 minutes.’”
As it turns out, the duo’s fame has gone long past 15 minutes. Affleck has won another Academy Award since “Good Will Hunting,” while Damon has gone on to earn a trio of Oscar nominations.
He can next be seen in the highly anticipated drama “Oppenheimer,” about the development of the atomic bomb. That movie opens July 21.
