Matt Damon and Ben Affleck snuck a sex scene into the script of Good Will Hunting.
The Hollywood A-listers decided to write in a fake oral sex scene into a draft script of their iconic 1997 film, which followed a genius janitor working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Damon, who turns 54 today (October 8), played the mathematics whizz who is discovered by MIT professor Dr. Sean Maguire (Williams).
The classic movie ended up winning two Oscars and getting nine nominations at the 70th Academy Awards. Rookie screenwriters Damon and Affleck won Best Original Screenplay and Williams got Best Supporting Actor.
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But before it was a cinema hit, Damon and Affleck decided to trick producers from film studios who wanted to snatch the movie but hadn’t bothered to read the whole script. In a very risky move, they slipped a gay sex scene showing two professors (who were straight) giving one another oral sex.
(Image: Miramax)
They eventually picked Miramax Films, ran by now-disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, because they were the only studio to properly read the script. Weinstein told The Graham Norton Show: “Every studio wanted the movie, every studio wanted them to be in the movie and make this film.
“They were young kids, just really starting out, but they had some good roles behind them. They came to my office, and I read the script [before] the meeting, and we walked in and everything was pleasant, and then about 10 minutes into the meeting I said, ‘Guys, there’s just one thing on the script… I just have one really big note.
(Image: Getty Images for SXSW)
The convicted rapist continued: “About page 60, the two professors give each other oral sex and they’re on their knees and this whole big sex scene. What the hell is that? Because the guys are straight, and there’s no hint of anything like that… I don’t get that scene.'”
“They go, ‘That’s the scene that we wrote to find out whether guys in your job actually read the script, because every studio executive we went to … no one brought that scene up, or maybe people thought it was a mistake or maybe nobody read it themselves.’ They said, ‘You’re the only guy that brought it up. You get the movie.'”
(Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Damon and Affleck, who were just starting out their careers, had originally sold the rights to Castle Rock but began getting frustrated with the studio. Castle Rock kept asking the pair to re-write the script but the actors started to think nobody at the company was reading the altered scripts properly.
Affleck told Boston Magazine: “We were so frustrated that Castle Rock wasn’t reading the script, so we felt like we had to develop this test. We started writing in screen direction like, ‘Sean talks to Will and unloads his conscience.’
“And then: ‘Will takes a moment and then gives Sean a soulful look and leans in and starts blowing him’… We would turn that in, and they wouldn’t ever mention all those scenes where Sean and Will were jerking each other off.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
