Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have dozens of stories about their exploits in Hollywood, but their journey goes way back to their days living in Massachusetts. The Last Duel stars got into the business at a young age and frequently traveled from Massachusetts to New York in pursuit of roles.
Early in their careers, neither of the actors were getting speaking roles in films and had to settle for gigs as extras. In fact, they ended up being extras in the 1989 classic, Field of Dreams, although it’s impossible to distinguish them out on screen.
Damon recently revealed that they only took the gig so they could go to the ballpark that their beloved Red Sox play at.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck agreed to be extras in ‘Field of Dreams’ so they could go to Fenway Park
Damon revealed the little-known fact during a recent interview with Dan Patrick.
“Ben and I were extras in that, actually, just to go to Fenway,” Damon revealed.
There were literally thousands of extras in Field of Dreams, so it’s highly unlikely that viewers would be able to make them out in the film.
“We were extras in Field of Dreams, I bet there were probably 3,000 extras in a big crowd scene when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are at the baseball game,” Damon said.
They got the opportunity to talk to Kevin Costner
Even though they didn’t have any lines in the movie, Damon and Affleck got the rare opportunity to meet Kevin Costner.
“Costner came out and hung out with the extras,” Damon said. “And Ben and I went and struck up a conversation with him. And he probably gave us five minutes. He was incredibly generous with his time.”
The ‘Last Duel’ stars talked to Kevin Costner about acting
Even though they had yet to accomplish anything in the industry, Damon and Affleck were adamant about talking with Costner about the movie business.
“We knew we wanted to be actors,” Damon said. “I was probably 17, and Ben was probably 15, and we were already traveling to New York and auditioning. And we were like, ‘We have agents.’
Despite his superstar status, Costner took the time to chat with Damon and Affleck, not knowing that they’d one day be megastars in their own right.
“He was great … And it happens to me all the time. Kids come up to me like, ‘I want to be an actor,’ and it’s like, ‘Good for you, man.’ Go get ’em,” Damon said.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went on to write and star in ‘Good Will Hunting’
Years later, Damon and Affleck got their big break when they wrote and starred in the Academy Award-winning film Good Will Hunting.
In a separate interview with The Off Camera Show, Damon revealed that it was his and Affleck’s lack of success landing roles in major movies that encouraged them to write the Good Will Hunting script.
“That was one of the things that was really the impetus behind Ben and I writing Good Will Hunting and focusing on it, was because when Primal Fear, when Edward Norton got Primal Fear, we went, ‘F***. There’s not gonna be another one of those that’s gonna come around. We gotta do our own thing.’”
Good Will Hunting proved to be a life-changing project for Damon and Affleck, and they continue to collaborate today. Their latest film, The Last Duel, hits theaters in October.
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