Ben Affleck recently went to the Jimmy Kimmel Live show to promote his film Air. He stars in the autobiographical film about Michael Jordan’s iconic shoe deal with Matt Damon. While Affleck and Kimmel are friends and on good terms, the host still isn’t over his feud with Damon after almost 20 years. During the interview, Damon dropped in via zoom to answer one question, but Kimmel wasn’t having it, leaving Affleck disappointed in the host and the entire rivalry between the two.
Jimmy Kimmel And Matt Damon’s Feud Continues
During the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, the titular host praised all the cast members of the film Air by name. However, he left out the lead of the film, Matt Damon. When Ben Affleck pointed this out, Kimmel said that he was only praising the great people in it. Affleck was exasperated and said that even though he understands the rivalry the two have, the host should ask his co-star and friend one question.
Kimmel grudgingly agreed and said, “Ok fine, call him, know that this will be your wedding gift. Let’s just get it over with. I am only asking him one question.” Affleck then called Damon, and the actor popped up on the screen through a video call looking excited.
Kimmel asked the actor how would he compare playing a real person to a fictional one. However, just when The Martian actor began speaking, the screen began glitching and froze on Damon, leaving him with funny faces. Kimmel joked:
“Seems like we are having a connection problem with the WiFi. Matt can you hear us? We didn’t get to hear his philosophy about acting, is he still stealing the neighbor’s WiFi?”
Then various filters began to appear on the star’s face and hair. The celeb accused Kimmel of playing with him but the presenter replied that it was probably Damon’s fat fingers that started the filters. By this time, the actor had enough and he said:
“I knew you were gonna pull something you are such a child. I am so sick and tired and dealing with your (expletive) so why don’t you take your little question and your little show and shove it up your big hairy (expletive).”
The host stepped in to apologize for Damon’s words. He said to Ben Affleck that he can’t believe the Batman star is friends with the actor. But all Affleck said was, “I am really disappointed.” Kimmel didn’t mind his interviewee’s words and ended the segment by saying that they have lost the connection and won’t try to get Damon back again. Now, the entire feud was a skit and it has been running for about 2 decades now. However, it began quite accidentally.
How Did Matt Damon And Jimmy Kimmel’s Rivalry Begin?
The 20-year-long funny feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon started during the third season of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show in 2005. The presenter had joked that they couldn’t accommodate Matt Damon in the show due to time. Kimmel said, “I want to apologise to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.” As for why he made the joke, Kimmel said that it began because he wanted to make his producer laugh. As per the host:
“I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me, ‘I want to apologize to Matt Damon. We ran out of time’ and he got a kick out of it ― the producer ― so I just started doing it every night to amuse him… Matt Damon was just the first name that popped into my head,”
Matt Damon had no idea that he was in a feud with Kimmel for a long time. But during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, the actor admitted that now both of them are in on the joke and still keep it going. He said:
“He could’ve said, you know, George [Clooney] ― he could have said somebody else. But he just, for some reason… he just said my name and it changed the course of both of our lives. We’ve kept this feud going for, you know, it’s gotta be 15 years now. I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”
It now remains to be seen where Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon take their funny long-running rivalry next.
Air releases on 5 April 2023.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel
