revealed how he really felt being instructed by best pal in their latest flick Air.
The Hollywood pair – who have been chums since the age of eight – starred in Good Will Hunting together in 1997, and have remained close friends over the years as they both rocketed to fame.
The 1997 film landed nine Academy Awards nominations, including best actor for Matt, while they ended up sharing the Oscar for best screenplay and their co-star Robin Williams picked up the best supporting actor prize.
Matt, 52, and Ben, 50, join forces again in the 2023 Air, which follows the story of how shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro led Nike in its pursuit of then-basketball rookie Michael Jordan.
It led to the creation of a partnership (and footwear) that would revolutionise the world of sport and contemporary culture.
During Tuesday’s The One Show, the two stars promoted the upcoming film and presenter Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas asked Matt how he felt under Ben’s instructions.
‘We’ve been doing theatre together since 1986….. so very old,’ Matt said.
‘Writing screenplays together over the years and so creative problem solving is baked into our friendship so it felt like a natural extension of that.’
‘It didn’t feel weird at all taking direction from him,’ he added.
The extent of Ben and Matt’s friendship was recently made evident after Jason Bourne actor Matt revealed that the pair used to share a bank account.
The 52-year-old also explained they had rules about – revealing they could take small amounts out for change to play video games and later they used it as beer money.
He continued: ‘You were allowed to take out $10 and get quarters and go to [the arcade] and play video games. Eventually we were allowed to try to buy beer, which never f***ing worked.’
Ben added: ‘I think that attitude really helped us in ways we couldn’t anticipate. Matt and I . Like, “Hey, I want to get the part, but I want you to get the part [too].”’
The One Show airs weekdays at 7pm on BBC One.
