Matt Damon Says His 43-Year Friendship with Casey Affleck Is Based on 'Trust and Love' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Matt DamonandCasey Affleckgo way back — over four decades back, in fact.

“We have this 43-year shared history,” Damon, 53, says of Casey, 48, and his brotherBen Affleckin this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “We grew up together.”

Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. Photo: Courtesy Casey Affleck.Courtesy Casey Affleck; Alexia Barroso

Courtesy Casey Affleck; Alexia Barroso

“In our business, there’s a whole language that gets created around trying to protect people’s feelings because people’s egos are involved,” adds Damon. He and Casey “don’t waste any time on diplomacy, which I love.”

It also takes place in and was filmed in the leading duo’s childhood city. For Casey,The Instigatorswas a chance to reconnect with roots that included growing up alongside Ben, now 51, and Damon. “Boston has changed a lot,” notes Casey. “It’s really not the city that we grew up in.

“On the other hand, it’s the place I still feel more at home than anywhere else. So that says something about what a place does to you when you’re growing. I’ll forever be connected to this place no matter how much it changes.”

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Damon’s memories of pursuing Hollywood dreams alongside the Affleck brothers in the years leading up to the Oscar-winning success of 1997’sGood Will Huntingincluded not being “afraid to be vulnerable with each other as young men” in Boston.

“Part of being an actor and putting yourself in those positions and getting rejected constantly — knowing that somebody else is living that same life and making those same sacrifices, that shared sense of experience, that’s why we would clump up and hang out together and talk about it,” recalls Damon.

source: people.com