Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s friendship has been one that has been going on for decades. The duo has worked together in films and has teamed up on several occasions to bring out the best of each other. As childhood best friends, they always have each other’s backs. This has also led them to give each other roles that would go on to become extremely iconic for one reason or another.
Their dedication to one another is wonderful. However, there have been moments when they rejected certain films for the most peculiar reasons. Nonetheless, that gave room for the others to expand their filmography and range. One such movie just so happened to be directed by Mission: Impossible direction John Woo.
Matt Damon Could Not Play Another Amnesiac
Matt Damon was once offered an opportunity to work with Mission: Impossible director John Woo in Paycheck. The movie had a rather interesting concept with a man on the run from the police while trying to understand his past through his amnesia. The script came to Damon first. However, he was forced to refuse it.
“He read the script and said to him, ‘You know, I can’t just be amnesia movie guy, you know what I mean, or that’s all I’ll do.’ But he called me right after his meeting with John and said, ‘You gotta get on this script, man, this is really, really good.’”
The reason for his refusal was also rather peculiar. Although he loved the script immensely, he did not want to be typecast. That was one of his biggest fears. Playing one more person with amnesia would only lead to him being typecast and he wanted to escape that no matter how great the script had been. He did not let the opportunity go though, he immediately called Ben Affleck and told him to try out for the movie because of how incredible the entire concept was.
Ben Affleck Got Lucky With John Woo’s Movie
Ben Affleck was more than intrigued after he heard about the film and wanted badly to be a part of it. He was hoping to get the part but did not know if he would pass the audition in peace. Lucky for him, he did not have to. While John Woo was flying to Los Angeles, the plane was playing Changing Lanes, a movie Affleck is highly praised.
“John flew back from the meeting in New York on the plane to LA and they were showing ‘Changing Lanes’ on the plane. When he got here I got the part. It was great. It was serendipitous for me. I like to think though that it was ‘Changing Lanes’ that did it and not Matt, therefore I’m not giving him a cut.”
The director was so impressed by his performance that he got the part easily. However, Affleck refused to give any credit to Matt Damon and believed that it was his film that did the work for him.
Source: Coming Soon
