Credit: Unsplash

The two are establishing a company based on decades of professional partnership.

Back in November, veteran actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon announced the formation of Artists Equity, a new production company headed by the both of them based around the idea that all members of a film’s production crew should get a cut of the profits. This includes not just cast and directorial staff, but editors, cinematographers, costume designers, and more. The linchpin to this new company is the steadfast working relationship between Affleck and Damon, which the two have cultivated for decades.

When asked about how the business relationship works in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck said that “the reason it works is that I trust him and love him, and I know that this is somebody with integrity. In this business, failure is hard, and success is confusing and can make you lose your bearings. Having that friendship as a touchstone over the years was really meaningful. One of the things we reflected on when we did The Last Duel that caused us to want to do this company together was the fact that we wished we’d kept working together more over the years. We fell prey to this idea that, ‘Well, if you don’t individuate your careers and do your own things, people will always associate you together. That will be limiting.'”

Ben Affleck's next shot.

The actor, filmmaker and budding CEO on the disruptive production company he launched with Matt Damon, why he’s done with DC, getting Michael Jordan’s blessing for #AirMovie and the advice he took from wife Jennifer Lopez: https://t.co/yBVuMoYBYp pic.twitter.com/QbAuaXRJRN

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 16, 2023

Affleck and Damon recall their early roles in Good Will Hunting and what taught them about the importance of getting properly paid for your work. “The motivation behind making Good Will Hunting was to serve as an acting reel so that we could get jobs as actors, not because we wanted to be writers. So when we became successful and had the opportunity to do movies, we took them. And it’s very hard to let go of that hand-to-mouth mentality you have as an actor. The phone could stop ringing at any time, and especially where Matt and I grew up pretty modestly, it was almost irresponsible to not take a job where they were going to pay you a lot of money. My mother made, I don’t know, $30,000 a year as a public school teacher in Boston. And I remember making $600,000 for Armageddon and thinking, “This is 20 years of my mother’s salary.” It just seemed absurd that you would pass on that opportunity, no matter what it was. A thing that you have to learn — one of many things we helped one another with — is that at a certain point, it becomes very meaningful the things you turn down, in terms of the kind of career that you create.”