Key Takeaways:
– Matt Damon and Ben Affleck rose to fame with their screenwriting debut in ‘Good Will Hunting.'
– The award-winning dialogue to end the film was actually improvised by Robin Williams.
– Williams delivered this line after nearly 60 takes, with each one being different.
Close Friends and Collaborators: The Journey of Damon and Affleck
Hollywood icons Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been friends since their school days. Their journey to the top of the Hollywood food chain was a shared one, beginning with their award-winning screenplay for ‘Good Will Hunting.' Their aim, initially, was to make it as actors, which led them to write the script of this heartwarming film about a math prodigy caught in a societal rut.
The movie proved a massive success, yielding $225 million against its modest $10 million budget. Impressively, it also garnered multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, among others.
The Unexpected Improv: How Robin Williams Made Magic
While many remember Good Will Hunting for the superb script by Damon and Affleck, one of the movie's most iconic moments was actually unscripted. As recounted by Damon in a Vanity Fair interview, the line, ‘Son of a b*tch stole my line,' which closes the film was improvised by Robin Williams on set.
Williams, a master of improv, did close to 60 takes, delivering something different each time. When he uttered that now-famous ending line, Damon says he and director Gus Van Sant knew instantly it was something special. They weren't alone: this cinematic moment lives on in the collective memory, a testament to Williams' improvisational genius.
The Birth of Good Will Hunting: An Organic Creative Process
Before achieving their superstar status, Damon and Affleck were simply friends trying to make their mark. The roots of Good Will Hunting can be traced back to a playwriting elective Damon took while attending Harvard. After writing 40 pages of a one-act play that would later become the famous script, he turned to his friend Affleck for collaboration.
Of the original 40 pages, only five survived, among which was the first scene featuring Robin Williams. Affleck remarked that this scene was almost identical to Damon's first draft.
In conclusion, Good Will Hunting might have started life as a project by two aspiring actors who wanted to make their mark. Still, it became much more than that, thanks to the beautiful writing by Damon and Affleck and the chance improv from Robin Williams that no one saw coming. Today, the movie is available to stream on Max, continuing to inspire and move audiences worldwide.
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