Fin: Yes, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote 'Good Will Hunting'

One of those stupid Hollywood urban legends that keeps coming back no matter how many times it’s debunked, for some reason resurfaced this week: The idea that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who won Oscars for their screenplay for 1997’s Good Will Hunting, didn’t actually write the film.

Ashley Rindsberg@AshleyRindsberg

But who actually wrote "Good Will Hunting"? Sure, Damon and Affleck wrote some part of it, some draft. But the idea that these two guys wrote an Oscar-winning screenplay—a true original—on their first try, at age 20 or whatever, then went on to write....nothing of consequence

agim𓍯 @aGim_asf

Matt Damon says he and Ben Affleck sold the “Good Will Hunting” screenplay for $600K, thought they were set for life, and needed another job just a year later Matt Damon: “When we sold Good Will Hunting, when we sold the screenplay, we thought that was absolutely it.” “We were

10:05 AM · Aug 5, 2026 · 3.56M Views

579 Replies · 23 Reposts · 1.5K Likes

First of all, it’s not true that the two of them went on to write… “nothing of consequence.” Affleck had writing credits on four different movies that he directed — Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Live By Night, and the upcoming Animals — and he and Damon reunited to co-write The Last Duel. Some of those are more “of consequence” than others, but they’re not nothing. Affleck and Damon now have a production company, Artists Equity.

Secondly, young upstart actors writing themselves into great roles and insisting on playing them is not exactly rare. That’s the exact origin story of Rocky, soon to be told in a whole other major motion picture this fall.

Also, when I interviewed Affleck when he was promoting Chasing Amy in 1997, he talked about “this movie we’re making soon called Good Will Hunting,” and he wouldn’t have had any reason at that point to lie about having written it.

This all got debunked a long time ago. The original conspiracy theory was that legendary screenwriter William Goldman, who had mentored Damon and Affleck and given them advice on the already-written script, had actually written Good Will Hunting and somehow positioned the two young actors as frontmen. But that’s a theory that never made sense, especially if you know anything about William Goldman, or about how credit gets ladled out in Hollywood.

Once the film, which was not seen in advance as a sure thing by any means, got nominated for and won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, wouldn’t the “real” screenwriter have come forward and tried to rightly claim the award they really earned? There have been massive WGA arbitration disputes over way less.

Goldman himself denied the rumor in one of his books:

🍺 Donald Clarke📽️@DonaldClarke63

I’ll leave this nonsense with the late William Goldman.

Ashley Rindsberg @AshleyRindsberg

But who actually wrote "Good Will Hunting"? Sure, Damon and Affleck wrote some part of it, some draft. But the idea that these two guys wrote an Oscar-winning screenplay—a true original—on their first try, at age 20 or whatever, then went on to write....nothing of consequence

1:22 PM · Aug 6, 2026 · 409K Views

23 Replies · 417 Reposts · 10.8K Likes

This represents the sort of conspiratorial thinking that I’ve really grown to despise, when there’s no evidence or argument, and it’s all replaced by, “I mean, come on…” That’s the type of nonsense Candace Owens does, and I wish it would go away, like immediately.

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