Matt Damon can’t imagine living with same press ‘scrutiny’ as his BFF Ben Affleck
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been friends for decades and have worked together often, but their lives are not the same, according to Damon.
In a recent appearance on the “Radio Times Podcast” with Affleck’s younger brother, Casey, Damon spoke about how the elder Affleck is under a media microscope.
“I can’t imagine living under that kind of scrutiny,” Damon said. “And it’s been like that for 25 years, and we’ve had parallel careers in a lot of ways and so I’m fortunate to have been kind of excused from that part of [it].”
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck shot to global fame and won an Academy Award in 1998 for writing “Good Will Hunting.”
Damon said despite the popularity of celebrity tabloid magazines 25 years ago, he credits his “boring” marriage to Luciana Barroso for protecting him from the attention.
“Like a guy who’s married, it’s so boring,” he said. “What would sell those things were scandal and sex and all that stuff … and as long as you didn’t do any of that stuff, it wasn’t really worth their time to wait to take your picture and so I ended up kind of getting left alone.”
Affleck is currently married to singer/actress Jennifer Lopez. He was first engaged to marry her in 2003 before they split. Part of their breakup was reportedly because of the media attention paid to their relationship. Affleck has been outspoken about not being enamored with fame.
Affleck and Lopez reunited almost twenty years later.
Damon said he would rather focus on his career than the stardom.
“I just wanted to get to work, and so I kind of hid for a few years while I got my bearings,” Damon said. “Luckily, I fell in love with someone who was not in the business [and] who would tolerate that side of it, and that really helped me.”
Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are currently starring in Apple TV+’s “The Instigators”
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