Ever since Ben Affleck and Matt Damon first made waves in Hollywood together by winning an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, the two have been largely inseparable in the minds of fans, despite not appearing on screen together all that often. They’re back in a movie together again in the recent Air, but it turns out one of their first times in a movie together was playing extras in Field of Dreams, where they met Kevin Costner, who was apparently quite nice.
Sitting together and talking to Elle Damon and Affleck go over a number of their professional “firsts” including when they each first met a big celebrity. It turns out the first time Damon met a celebrity it was Kevin Costner on the set of Field of Dreams, though Affleck says he saw a Back to the Future star first. The duo explained…
- Damon: When we were extras on Field of Dreams we talked to Kevin Costner for a little while. He was generous with his time.
- Affleck: And I saw Christopher Lloyd around the time. Back to the Future had already come out and that was maybe the first time I actually saw like a real celebrity. And I followed him for a couple of blocks, until it got weird.
So while Ben Affleck happened to see Christopher Lloyd, the two never actually met. It sounds like they both were able to get some time to talk with Kevin Costner, which is pretty amazing. Costner was at the height of his fame during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s but he was still giving time to people who were just playing extras on the set.
Field of Dreams wasn’t the only time that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were extras together. They also appeared in the background of a movie called The Good Mother. Affleck apparently did a lot more extras work than Damon did, and his friend compliments him for his work in the background, saying…
We were extras on The Good Mother with Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson, we were extras in Field of Dreams…[to Affleck] you were very good, you were a hell of a background artist. The first movie we did together was School Ties, right?
As Damon says, the duo would appear in School Ties with recent Oscar winner Brenden Fraser, before going on to write and co-star in Good Will Hunting, which would earn them both Academy Awards. Since then, they’ve been very successful on their own, making movies that win awards and make hundreds of millions of dollars, Affleck even scored himself another Oscar. But they always come back together now and then. Check out Damon and Affleck's full conversation about their various "firsts" below.
Air was far from the first movie they appeared in together, but it’s highly unlikely it will be the last.
