Matt Damon Shares He and Casey Affleck ‘Grew Up Together’ Amid Working on Their New Movie Together; Deets Here
Matt Damon shares his decades-long bond with The Instigators co-star Casey Affleck. Damon has been friends with the Affleck brothers, Ben and Casey, for almost 40 years and reflects on what it’s like to work with someone he’s “grown up” with.
Damon is reuniting with his dear friend Casey Affleck for the Apple Original film The Instigators. This heist comedy follows Rory and Cobb, unlikely partners who team up for a heist. When things go awry, they must outrun the police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.
This isn’t the first time Casey Affleck and Matt Damon have teamed up for a heist movie. They previously appeared in The Ocean’s Trilogy, though they were part of an ensemble cast. The Instigators focuses solely on their characters and the chaos that ensues during a heist.
Their collaboration goes beyond professional ties; Matt, Casey, and Ben Affleck have been friends for a long time. Reflecting on reuniting with Casey for this major project, Matt said, “We have this 43-year shared history; we grew up together. There’s an underlying understanding of who we are.”
Matt, accustomed to the shifting dynamics of Hollywood, appreciates that there’s no pretense between him and Casey. He noted that their long-standing relationship means they don’t need to engage in diplomatic niceties, making their collaboration smooth and natural.
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Damon elaborated, “In our business, there’s a whole language that gets created around trying to protect people’s feelings because people’s egos are involved.”
The Doug Liman directorial heist comedy is based and shot in their native city of Boston. When discussing their shooting experience in his childhood home, where he grew up with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Casey Affleck added, “Boston has changed a lot,” notes Casey. “It’s really not the city that we grew up in.
The Manchester By The Sea actor continued, “On the other hand, it’s the place where I still feel more at home than anywhere else. So that says something about what a place does to you when you’re growing. I’ll forever be connected to this place, no matter how much it changes.”
Damon recalls pursuing Hollywood aspirations with the Affleck siblings in the years preceding the Oscar-winning triumph of 1997’s Good Will Hunting, including not being “afraid to be vulnerable with each other as young men” in Boston.
The Instigators is a comedy movie about a heist gone wrong. Matt Damon plays the desperate divorced dad, Rory, while Casey portrays the ex-cop, Coby.
Chuck MacLean and Casey Affleck co-wrote the film, which also stars Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Alfred Molina, Ron Perlman, and Rapper Jack Harlow. The Instigators is currently in theaters and will be available for streaming on Apple TV on August 9.
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