Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting was one of their best movies to date. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by prominent actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It starred the two actors and legendary actor Robin Williams in the lead roles. It was critically and commercially a massive success, which boosted the career of the young stars. However, the actors had a difficult time in getting funding for the film.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with their Oscars for Good Will Hunting

But Damon and Affleck did not lose hope and came up with a plan to get funding by getting a popular actor for the role of professor.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did not write professor’s role for Robin Williams

If you have seen the film, you know the role of Dr. Sean Maguire fitted the best for Robin Williams. The actor made the role iconic with his groundbreaking performance. His caring sense of humor and tough love as a psychology professor earned him the Academy Award for the film.

However, the role was not initially kept for Williams. As per the interview of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon by GQ, the scriptwriters wanted a big name for their film to make it a massive success.

Good Will Hunting

Damon shared,

“Ben and I wrote it because we wanted the parts as actors. At the time, there was a really popular movie that we all loved called Reservoir Dogs. The story we had heard was that because Harvey Keitel had signed up for the movie, [director] Quintin [Tarantino] got half a million dollars.”

Hence, they thought if they could get a big name to star in their film, then they would get the needed funding. He added,

“So we wrote that part that Robin eventually took, we called it the Harvey Keitel part – looking for an actor that could get us some money because Ben and I wanted to star in the movie, and we knew we were worth nothing. So we needed to get somebody.” 

The role finally went to Robin Williams, and he owned it like it was tailored for him.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were ready to tweak the professor’s character in Good Will Hunting

The Bourne Identity star shared that he and the Batman star were flexible about the actor for the role of professor.

“We wrote it really open-ended. We wrote it saying, ‘Okay, [my and Robin’s characters are] from the same neighborhood, so they kind of understand each other.”

They were also willing to change their demographics if required,

“We also knew we could adjust it if Morgan Freeman or somebody like Denzel Washington wanted to come in and play it, we could make that character from Roxbury [a historically Black neighborhood] and kind of explore the historic racial tension in Boston.”

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting

They were open to any famous actress playing the professor like Meryl Streep. Matt Damon added,

“If Meryl Streep took the part, instead of a father/son relationship, there would be a mother-son relationship. We really left it open because we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible because we were trying to get the movie made.”

Meryl Streep

The film was received well by the audience and grossed over $225 million, against a $10 million budget. It received nominations in nine categories at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. They won two awards, Best Supporting Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon.