Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reminiscing about the sweet experience of bringing their moms as their dates to the 1998 Oscars ceremony, where both actors won Academy Awards.
"It was a very surreal experience to go because the year before, we were shooting 'Good Will Hunting,'" Damon said in a joint video interview with Affleck published by Vanity Fair.
Damon explained that in 1997, he and Affleck watched the Oscars in a Toronto condo with their "Good Will Hunting" director Gus Van Sant and two actors who starred alongside them in the film.
The BFFs returned to the ceremony in 1998 as first-time Oscar nominees for co-writing the movie's screenplay. Damon was also nominated for a best actor award for his starring role in the film.
"To go from that experience where, you know, we filled out the (Oscar ballot) sheets and we were betting on who was gonna win, to being in the front row of the Oscars together with our moms — in one year— it felt like warp speed," said Damon.
"And to have Billy Crystal singing a song about us," the actor added.
As Affleck recalled, the pair knew immediately that their moms would be their dates to the event, which was made that much more exciting when their names were announced as winners.
“We were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms,” said Affleck. “And I remember, how everyone had made such a big thing out of it. As if this was such a novelty.
“And I remember thinking, being insecure, like, ‘Why? Why is it weird that we’re bringing our moms?’” he continued. “Like, ‘Who else do you think we would bring?’ You know what I mean?
“There was nobody else that was going to go. That was it. Of course our moms were gonna go. That was, really was innocent and not faked,” added Affleck.
The pair would go on to earn later individual Oscar nominations, with Affleck winning again in 2012 when the historical drama "Argo," which he also directed, won for best picture.
Damon and Affleck became best friends in high school, even sharing a joint bank account when they were teens. They became roommates in their early 20s before finding fame.
The critical and commercial success of "Good Will Hunting" changed the course of both actors' lives. But to hear Damon tell it, even just working on the film's set together was an emotionally fulfilling experience.
"Sometimes those moments sneak up on you,” Damon told GQ in 2021. “And that was another one of those moments we never thought was going to arrive. To see not only actors, but those actors, saying the stuff that we wrote, was like … f---.
"Just, I guess, a mixture of joy and disbelief. And relief. And gratitude. That would probably be it. That was a really nice moment. I’m not ashamed to say it.”