They’re the figurehead for bromance and the friendship of the century (IOHO), so it’s only fitting that, at a recent premiere for his new film The Martian, Matt Damon spoke about Ben Affleck. Among other things, he talked about how painful it was to be Ben’s mate while he was going out with Jennifer Lopez all those years ago.
Remember BenLo? Nobody called them BenLo, they called them Bennifer. But BenLo is way better, in retrospect.
‘There’s nobody who’s more misunderstood,’ he told The Hollywood Reporter. ‘Ten years ago, his public image could not have been farther apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez.
‘He just got cast as this person that he wasn’t. It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn’t fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all. And through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top and past where either of us had ever been.’
But someone did get him, Matt. You. You got him. Cue music and tears. Their agent, WME’S Patrick Whitesell said about the bromantic pair: ‘In the marketplace, everything gets exaggerated. These guys are both super interested in doing a range of things — Matt’s diversity as an actor and Ben going down the road of writing, acting and directing. They’re all things that come from an artistic place, and they love the challenge of it. That spark is where they’re very similar. And on a philanthropic level, they’re both very, very committed.’
Matt then went on to discuss the other love in his life, Ben Affleck aside. ‘I remember thinking, in my early thirties, that I wouldn’t [get married], you know? I didn’t think it was going to happen for me. My brother found his soul mate very young; he’d just turned 26 when they were married. He’d been married for 10 years by the time I even met my wife, and I looked at this really happy, wonderful marriage and kind of went, “I guess that’s not going to happen for me.” And then it did.’
What a sweetheart. We’re glad for you, Matt.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.