Ben Affleck Says Matt Damon Made ‘Wise Choice’ to Pick Acting Roles Based on Directors: ‘I May Go’ to ‘The Odyssey’ Set ‘Just to Watch Nolan Direct’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ben Affleck said in an interview with GQ magazine that his acting career started to differ from that of friend Matt Damon‘s after Damon made the “wise choice” early on to pick projects based on the movie’s director.

After 1997’s “Good Will Hunting” won them the Oscar for original screenplay, Damon joined forces with the likes of Steven Spielberg (“Saving Private Ryan”), Anthony Minghella (“Talented Mr.

Ripley”), Robert Redford (“The Legend of Bagger Vance”), Steven Soderbergh (“Ocean’s Eleven”) and more. Affleck, meanwhile, leaned into action blockbusters like “Armageddon” and big studio fare such as “Pearl Harbor,” “Daredevil” and more. “I thought you were going to compare our acting careers, to which I would’ve said, well, Matt learned and knew earlier than I did to really key in on the director as the fundamental basis on which he’s going to make a decision whether to do a movie or not, which was a very wise choice,” Affleck told GQ about where his acting career parted from Damon’s. “And also he has certainly had opportunities to do movies that like — it’s not like I was saying, ‘No, Scorsese, no, Spielberg, I’m not going to be in your movie.’ We’re in situations of our opportunities, and we’re subject to that” “I would’ve taken ‘Saving Private Ryan,'” Affleck added later in the interview. “If Martin Scorsese called me and told me to play a waiter, I would take it.