Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s friendship has been well-documented in Hollywood folklore for decades; there’s no more iconic celebrity friendship in modern-day pop culture. The pair most recently starred together in last year’s sports biopic Air, Directed by Ben and starring Matt; the two superstars produced it together under their newly formed production company Artists Equity.
So what could be better than working out with your best friend?
Matt smiles and says, “Even working with my best friend’s brother!”
Although he has collaborated with Casey Affleck several times in the past, ( Ocean’s Trilogy, Good Will Hunting, Interstellar And oppenheimer These are some of the titles in which they have starred as part of a group of artists) Apple’s Instigators This will be the first time Matt and Casey will be starring in a film together.
Playing reluctant partner-in-criminals in a heist comedy set in Boston, the two (a desperate father in need of money and an ex-convict) coincidentally join hands to rob a corrupt politician. The only hitch in their plan? They’re both very bad at being thieves. When they fail in their daring attempt, a chaotic chase begins that involves not only the police, but also bureaucrats, crime bosses and… a doctor. Will the feuding pair manage to resolve their differences and escape their adversaries?
Matt Damon (left) and Casey Affleck are seen in a scene from ‘The Instigators’ in this photo released by Apple TV.
Directed by Doug Liman and written by Chuck MacLean and Casey Affleck, Instigators It also stars Jack Harlow and Ron Perlman, with Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, and Toby Jones.
Speaking to us over Zoom, Matt Damon recalls his off-screen and on-screen equation with Casey Affleck, what makes his Boston brand of humor special, and why he’s a purposeful producer.
Excerpts from the interview:
There’s always headlines about your lifelong friendship with Ben, but you share a similar bond with Casey. How does that relationship come across on screen when working with them?
We’ve been in each other’s lives for 43 years and we’re very close! Casey is a little younger, so when we were teenagers, he was probably the guy to hang out with a little bit. But then, when he was 18, we were all in LA together, and Ben and I were in our early 20s, so we all lived together as struggling actors. We’ve been through every stage of life together, from childhood on.
When it comes to work, we have a huge reservoir of shared experiences, because we’ve known each other for so long. Sometimes when we talk about scenes – not when we’re in them, but before we do them – Casey asks me to remember someone we both know or something from our childhood, and asks me to use that experience for that scene. That’s a special thing.
Matt Damon and Casey Affleck pose at the premiere of ‘The Instigators’ at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City | Photo credit: Kent J. Edwards
On the analytical side of what we’re going to do, we’ll talk about things we’ve seen before, or things we’ve always wanted to see in a film. But once we’ve done that, we’re completely immersed in the moment. Working with Casey is really fun for me, because having done nine films and a play with him in London 20 years ago, I never know what to expect from him. It’s a great pleasure to come prepared and relaxed and go wherever we go, because we’re always discovering together.
Of course it’s like taking risks and going in different directions. Sometimes they work out, and sometimes they don’t, but you really feel like by the time you get home, you’ve figured out a place for everything that’s there.
This is the second film you have made with Ben under the banner of your production company Artists Equity, after last year’s ‘Air’. How hard are you working on this project as a producer as well as acting?
This reminds me of all those light bulb jokes we tell… There’s a great joke about a manufacturer. It says, ‘How many manufacturers does it take to install a light bulb? And the answer is, does it have to be a light bulb?!’ (laughing)
But no, really, the way we set up our model with Artists Equity is that we run the budget, but we’re also responsible for the overages. So in this case, the director Doug Liman and I were responsible, so we were all very careful. I didn’t have to remind Doug to control it; his and my salary was at stake, and Artists Equity was at stake. But everybody was incredibly efficient, moving in the same direction and we got really good results in the most efficient way possible. But when it comes to what the movie needs… if it’s a tank on the streets of Boston hitting a fire truck, well, that’s what we’re going to do! We don’t cut corners on making the movie the way it needs to be made.
Director Doug Liman (left) poses with actors Matt Damon, Hong Chau and Casey Affleck for the promotion of ‘The Instigators’. Photo credit: Reba Saldanha
Since the film is essentially about a heist, do you have any favourite films in the genre? Don’t say ‘Ocean’ because that would be too easy…
Oh… that’s a tough question, that’s what I’ll say. Rififi? (1955 French crime thriller based on Auguste Le Breton’s novel of the same name) I too agree with Casey’s choice; Tees This is a good one too.
Those movies are really fun because you enjoy watching people outsmart and outsmart a system that’s designed to keep them out. But our heist movie is very, very different; it’s the same as Bad News Bears The story of teams doing robberies, and that’s it. We wanted the film to be fast, fun and light.
‘The Instigators’ is set in your hometown of Boston, where you’ve filmed several projects before. With the Affleck brothers, you’ve mentioned Boston’s distinct humor many times over the years, and it’s evident in this film as well. How would you explain it to someone?
Ah… so it’s a very cynical brand of humor, sarcastic and a little fatalistic. To give you a real-life example, the Boston Red Sox didn’t win a title for 86 years, and in the last 20 years, they’ve won four. We were at a game last night and spent a few moments with the team’s owner, Tom Werner. He told me, as he was walking through an airport, a man stopped him and asked, ‘Are you Tom Werner?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And the man from Boston said, ‘You have nothing to be ashamed of.’ (laughing)
You can be self-deprecating and superior at the same time.
Actors Matt Damon (left) and Casey Affleck (right) talk with Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner (center) before a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston. Photo credit: Michael Dwyer
What was it like reuniting with “The Bourne Identity” director Doug Liman after two decades?
I want to do as many movies with Doug as possible; I love working with him. All the things he did well 20 years ago, he still does very well today. I think in the past he was unfairly labeled as a careless person. That was the reason I wanted to raise his salary to cover the overage, because I just wanted to signal that I have complete confidence in him.
Creatively speaking, his process is chaotic, which we both really like, because Doug is very open to finding the best ideas and also incorporating everyone’s ideas.
The Instigators has a great cast; some big names have agreed to comeo in it. How did you guys do that?
The most exciting thing for the writers is that Casey was a co-writer on this film, and I’ve felt the same on titles I’ve written in the past – it’s an incredible joy when you get on set and see what you’ve written being carried forward by these incredible actors. Doug told us in pre-production some of the names he was hoping to attract, and we couldn’t believe it.
Hong Chau, Casey Affleck and Matt Damon in a scene from ‘The Instigators’
They were all our favorite actors and thankfully they wanted to come and play small roles, even if it was just a scene or two, and just have fun. They saw things they could do with the characters, and that’s what really makes the movie special: this diverse cast of really interesting actors that helped us create this world.
Any funny memories from filmmaking?
We shot a scene at City Hall where we were dressed as firefighters and we had to go up and down the stairs all night wearing fire gear. There were probably 100 other firefighters in that scene with full gear with oxygen tanks and fire hoses, but Casey and I were just pretending to be firefighters, so we didn’t have any heavy equipment.
And I was just about to complain to Casey about how tired I was when I noticed a firefighter walking in front of us, carrying probably 100 pounds of gear, and doing the scene over and over again. He turned around and gave me the biggest smile and said, ‘This is really funny!’ Then I realized we were really just actors crying.
The Instigators premieres August 9 on Apple TV+
