Today marks the 25th anniversary of Good Will Hunting's theatrical release. Perhaps best remembered as the film that launched the careers of co-stars and co-writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who won an Academy Award for their original screenplay, as well as Robin Williams' Oscar-winning performance, the 1997 Gus Van Sant-directed drama won the hearts of critics and audiences alike. Chronicling a period of self-discovery in the tumultuous life of its title character, who we learn is a genius with a traumatic past involving physical and emotional abuse, the film is a powerhouse of intelligent, thoughtful storytelling brought to life by an ensemble of unique and nuanced performances.
With hindsight being clear as day, it's difficult to imagine Good Will Hunting being a tough sell for a major studio, but its lineage from script to screen was an arduous process involving many cooks in the proverbial kitchen of filmmaking. The project made its way through multiple gatekeepers at Castle Rock Entertainment and Miramax Films, the latter of which would ultimately be responsible for purchasing the screenplay, putting it into production, and distributing the final film theatrically. A number of directors and creative advisors came and went as the budding Damon and Affleck fought to maintain the integrity of their vision for the film, as well as their desire to play the roles of Will and Chuckie, respectively. It was through the recommendation and urging of one particular ally, however, that their screenplay would find its way into providential hands and get the green light.
The Long, Windy Road to Getting 'Good Will Hunting' Made
In the mid-90s, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were far from stardom. As young actors with a handful of film credits to their names, they were grinding their way through the choppy waters of the entertainment industry. While enrolled in a playwriting course during his fifth year at Harvard University, Damon began work on what would eventually become Good Will Hunting. Having cranked out roughly 40 pages, the young actor hit a creative wall and was unsure of how to move forward in crafting his story. After moving to Los Angeles to act in a film, he roomed with Affleck and sought assistance in proceeding with his idea. According to Affleck, "We came up with this idea of the brilliant kid and his townie friends, where he was special, and the government wanted to get their mitts on him. And it had a very Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run sensibility, where the kids from Boston were giving the NSA the slip all the time." They finished their script in 1994 and, with the assistance of an agent, pitched it all over tinsel town in the hopes of getting it made.
From the very beginning, Damon and Affleck wanted to headline Good Will Hunting should it ever be approved and financed. While the initial buzz surrounding the script was positive, the notion of the two then-unknown performers starring in the film was a long shot at best. Their agent, Patrick Whitesell, commented on this when he told Boston Magazine, "It’s almost an impossible thing to get a movie made that is written by two actors who want to star in it when no one knows who they are. The only time it happened that I know of was when Sylvester Stallone did it in Rocky."
Nonetheless, the acting and writing duo pushed forward and were able to get the attention of Rob Reiner and Castle Rock Entertainment. After a bidding war, the production company came out ahead and bought the script for $600,000, although Reiner had creative suggestions for Damon and Affleck. He advised them to remove the thriller aspect that saw Will avoiding the sinister NSA, and instead focus on a more character-oriented approach that would emphasize Will's relationships with his friends and therapist. After some hesitance, since the NSA subplot comprised a good chunk of the original script, Damon and Affleck worked on new drafts that much more closely resembled the final film.
How Kevin Smith Saved 'Good Will Hunting'
After Castle Rock balked at the idea of the co-writers directing the film themselves, the production company offered them a deal. Damon and Affleck could act in the film and have approval of its director if they were able to find another company willing to buy their script within a designated timeframe. If they were unable to do so, they would lose the opportunity to act in the film altogether and Castle Rock would retain ownership of their script. Frustrated and fearful of losing their grasp on what they hoped would be their big break, they set out to find a new buyer. According to Damon, "Over the following weeks, we went back to meet with all of the studios who had bid on it who we hadn’t gone with, and basically, everybody took the meeting just to tell us to go fuck ourselves."
With the window of time rapidly closing on their deal, they enlisted the help of a recent collaborator in what would be a defining moment in the film's development. Kevin Smith, who had broken into the business the prior year with his debut indie hit, Clerks, had just worked with Affleck on Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Having developed a friendship during the making of those films, Smith agreed to read Good Will Hunting with the intention of bringing it to Miramax Films, the company that had bought and distributed two of his films. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck revealed that Smith (in characteristically raunchy fashion) told him of the experience reading the script, "I started your movie on the shitter. And I stayed on the whole time."
Getting the film into Smith's hands was a make-or-break moment for Damon and Affleck, with the former claiming that their friend "saved" the film. Smith promptly took the script into the Miramax offices and urged the company to "drop everything you're doing right now and read this." The company quickly made a deal to buy the script from Castle Rock for a whopping $1 million. Miramax also agreed to allow Damon and Affleck to star as Will and Chuckie, and suddenly they were off in search of a director to helm the film.
Finding a Director for 'Good Will Hunting'
Their first offer was to Smith, who appeared to have found the task intimidating and lacked the confidence to do the film justice. Regarding his decision to turn down the opportunity, the filmmaker has said, "I did not have enough talent to pull it off then. Even now, I don't think I do." After approaching Smith, Damon and Affleck met with Mel Gibson, who was fresh off the huge success of Braveheart, for which he'd won an Academy Award for Best Director. Gibson intended to develop the screenplay over a period of months, which led the duo to become anxious over the prospect of further delaying production of the film. They subsequently asked him to pass on the project, which he generously did. It was after Gibson's departure that Miramax sent a copy of the screenplay to director Gus Van Sant. He has said of reading Good Will Hunting, "Usually when I read a script, after a few pages, I put it down—but this kept me going." Although the filmmaker wanted to pursue the project, the film's development was delayed yet again when Miramax and Van Sant clashed over who would have the final cut.
But soon, another series of fortunate events propelled Good Will Hunting forward. Miramax hired Lawrence Bender, who had produced Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, to get behind the film, and he was steadfast in supporting Gus Van Sant's directorial vision. In addition, Damon had recently secured the lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's The Rainmaker. The film proved effective in establishing the actor as more well-known in Hollywood, giving him a boost of star power that Miramax felt would serve Good Will Hunting well. And for the grand finale, Robin Williams, who had just worked with Coppola on Jack, got ahold of Damon and Affleck's screenplay. Williams found it to be "extraordinary" and was surprised to discover that it was written by two actors in their mid-twenties. While arguably at the height of his fame, Williams agreed to take the crucial role of Sean Maguire, Will's therapist, and what had begun as a 40-page one-act play years before was about to roll cameras in early 1997.
When Ben and Matt Forgot to Thank Kevin Smith at the Oscars
One year later, as 55 million viewers tuned in to the most-watched (to this day) Oscars telecast in history, Good Will Hunting was nominated for nine awards and, by that time, had become a massive hit with critics and audiences. With the fourth Academy Award nomination of his career, Robin Williams finally received a golden statuette for his performance, and Damon and Affleck won for their original screenplay. Giving an acceptance speech full of pure joy, they had many people to thank. Collaborators, family, friends, and the city of Boston all received a shout-out as the two men grew increasingly celebratory on one of the world's grandest stages. Just as their speech was wrapping up and the live orchestra swelled, Affleck turned to Damon and exclaimed, "I know we're forgetting somebody!"
And indeed, they were forgetting somebody. They forgot perhaps the most instrumental collaborator of the entire Good Will Hunting journey. Kevin Smith, the friend and filmmaker without whom their screenplay would not have ended up in the hands of Miramax films. Kevin Smith, who so thoroughly believed in the screenplay's potential and urged the powers that be to take a chance on his friends. It's understandable that with the sheer amount of excitement and adrenaline coursing through their bodies, not to mention the immense pressure of expressing so much gratitude in so little time, Damon and Affleck simply slipped and made an honest blunder. Smith has spoken and joked about not being thanked in the years since, so we're glad to see that the friends haven't fallen out!
Both Damon and Affleck have been on the record in expressing their deep regret over Smith's accidental exclusion from their speech. Affleck reflected on the incident when he said, "I promised him I would thank him if we ever got an Oscar, and promptly forgot. And then I told him if I ever win again, I swear to God, I'm going to thank you, and forgot again. So I owe him very much." In a twist of irony, Damon and Affleck were in the midst of production on Kevin Smith's 1999 Dogma, which was shooting in Pittsburgh when they won their Oscar. Damon commented on this when he said, "We came back to Pittsburgh on our knees."