Ben Affleck<\/a> and Matt Damon’s careers, but said when it came to getting behind the camera on the project that made them stars neither he or they wanted it.<\/p>\nHe told People about them offering him the chance to direct the Oscar-winning film: \u201cOh my God, no. If I were to direct this, I would just turn around to Ben and Matt the whole time and say, \u2018Is this what you saw when you wrote it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The filmmaker spoke to People while reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Dogma, his 1999 movie that also starred Ben, now 52, and Matt, 54. <\/p>\n
Kevin met the pair in the mid-1990s and was instrumental in moving their Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting script from Castle Rock Entertainment to Harvey Weinstein\u2019s Miramax, where it would ultimately be produced. <\/p>\n
\nAccording to Kevin, Castle Rock had intended to make Good Will Hunting without Ben and Matt in the cast \u2014 a plan he helped derail.<\/p>\n
\nKevin said: \u201cThe first question that I was asked by Ben and Matt and the Miramax folks was, \u2018Do you wanna direct it?\u2019 I think they all asked that with clenched a******* hoping that I would say no.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nInstead, he suggested the pair be allowed to direct it themselves. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cI was told that the lunatics would not be running that particular asylum, so the search for a director began at Miramax,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\nKevin also said as many as \u201c20 of the top directors on the planet\u201d were interested in the job, including Michael Mann and Mel Gibson. <\/p>\n
\nGus Van Sant was eventually selected.<\/p>\n
\nKevin described the script for Good Will Hunting as \u201cone of the best things I\u2019ve ever read\u201d. <\/p>\n
\nThe 1997 film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt, while Robin Williams took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.<\/p>\n
\nKevin added the success of Good Will Hunting and Affleck\u2019s earlier film with him, Chasing Amy, provided the momentum needed to finally get Dogma into production. <\/p>\n
\nHe had originally given Affleck both scripts years earlier, cautioning that Dogma would require \u201cmovie stars\u201d to secure the necessary budget.<\/p>\n
\nHe said: \u201cI\u2019ll never forget the first day we\u2019re on set shooting with Ben and Matt. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cRight before the first take, we\u2019re about to roll for the first time and the boys have been nominated for Academy Awards. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cSo we\u2019re about to shoot, and I look at Ben, and Ben looks me dead in the eyes, and he goes, \u2018Guess who became a movie star just to do your stupid movie.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Well done, my friend. Well done\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7 June 2025 Kevin Smith passed on the opportunity to direct Good Will Hunting. Kevin Smith passed on the opportunity to direct Good Will Hunting The 54-year-old director played a crucial role in getting the film made and helping launch Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s careers, but said when it came to getting behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[942,11623,7706,8992,1143,10368,5462],"class_list":{"0":"post-173214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-ben-affleck","9":"tag-gus-van-sant","10":"tag-harvey-weinstein","11":"tag-kevin-smith","12":"tag-matt-damon","13":"tag-mel-gibson","14":"tag-michael-mann"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}