Will Hunting has a gift for being good at mathematics, but instead of thinking about having a bright future he chooses to work as a janitor and be a regular guy like his friends. Will gets caught solving a challenging mathematics problem on a chalkboard in the hallway by Professor Gerald Lambeau. Lambeau is amazed that someone like Will could solve a problem like that. Will has to attend therapy to find a direction in his life. Lambeau has his old college roommate, Sean Maguire treat Will.
Blaine: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck grew up together as best friends. They were living together in L.A. and they wanted to be actors. Problem was no one was hiring them. Matt and Ben had a lot of free time to themselves and they decided to do their own project. Matt had wrote a script called “Good Will Hunting” back in 1992 while he was in college. It was for a class he was taking. He had already written 50 pages and then Ben joined him in writing the script. A lot of people loved the script and Matt and Ben sold the script to Miramax studios for $800 dollars. Matt and Ben got involved with the project a lot even though they weren’t producers. Mel Gibson was the first person in mind to direct “Good Will Hunting” and he was all for it. Mel was also going to play Sean Maguire, the therapist who challenges Will. Mel Gibson had to do a few other projects first before he could do “Good Will Hunting”. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck couldn’t wait because they weren’t getting any younger and they really wanted to play these parts. So Mel Gibson dropped out, but he was a big believer in “Good Will Hunting” even though he wasn’t going to be involved.
Another director they interviewed didn’t want Matt to play Will even though he wrote the part for himself. But he didn’t care so they told him to not direct the movie. It took a while to find the right director until they met Gus Van Sant. Matt Damon had auditioned for Gus four times in the past, but he never got the part. However Gus thought Matt was an amazing actor. Even Gus’ casting director thought Matt was going to be a big star. When Gus read the script for “Good Will Hunting” he thought it was genius. He loved it so much that he wished he had read it a long time ago. Once Gus signed on to direct, “Good Will Hunting” was no longer Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s movie because Gus was the one who was going to bring it to life with his vision. Matt and Ben had a few disagreements with Gus as they were making “Good Will Hunting”. For one Gus wanted Ben’s character, Chuckie, to be killed. He wanted Chuckie’s head to be crushed by a cinder block at the construction site. Matt and Ben couldn’t understand why Gus would want that and were against that because they loved Chuckie. But they had no choice because Gus was the director and he was in charge of how the movie should go. Ben and Matt had to come up with how that scene should go. They spent a week trying to write how that scene should go. They thought hard and when they showed it to Gus he thought it was terrible. So Gus decided not to kill off the character.
Word spread about this script written by these two young guys, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They were 23 and 21 when they wrote it. Matt Damon was doing a movie called “The Rain Maker” and this woman, Jen, who was apart of the crew was a friend of Matt's. Jen had heard about this script he had written and she asked him if she could show her uncle the script. Matt said ok without knowing who her uncle was. Little did Matt know was that Jen’s uncle was Robin Williams. Robin Williams had been wanting to work with Gus Van Sant for a while because he liked his work. Robin would always be curious to know what kind of projects Gus would be involved with. Robin was very curious to know what “Good Will Hunting” was about and when he read the script he was very moved by it. Robin couldn’t believe that two young boys like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were able to write something so smart. He was curious to know what they were capable of sense they were also going to be starring in it. Robin Williams had contacted Frances Ford Coppola, who he worked with on “Jack”, because Frances was directing Matt Damon in “The Rainmaker”. Frances told Robin that Matt was a wonderful young man to work with. Robin’s character, Sean Maguire, Matt Damon had based off his mother because she was a psychiatrist. It was huge for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to a huge star play this character.
Robin Williams’ performance in “Good Will Hunting” is unlike anything else he has done before in his career because he’s done a lot of comedic roles where he is always smiling or acting goofy, but in this movie he is more serious. There are a couple of scenes in “Good Will Hunting” where he acts like Robin, but other than that, serious. He also has a romantic side to him because even though his wife is dead, still he loves her very much because she was his whole world. Robin was a professional at what he did. For each take they shot, Robin would do his performance differently compared to the last. Robin was also able to memorize his lines before rehearsing a scene. That impressed both Matt and Gus.
Ben and Matt would get involved with the casting as well. They would perform with actors auditioning for parts in the movie. Will’s love interest, Skylar, was based off of girlfriend Matt Damon had back when he was in college. She is someone who challenges Will, next to Sean Maguire, and he has never met anyone like her before. Originally Skylar was going to be American, but they loved Minnie Driver's British accent so much that they decided to make Skylar British. Minnie was going to do an American accent in her audition. Minnie felt comfortable with herself during that audition. Ben Affleck was able to get his brother, Casey Affleck, in this movie. At the time Casey was 18, he was attending college and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue a career in acting. Ben was also able to get Cole Hauser, who he had worked with before on “Dazed and Confused”, as one of Will and Chuckie’s friends, Billy.
“Good Will Hunting” was shot in places Matt and Ben grew up in and hung around when they were kids. My favorite scene in “Good Will Hunting” is when Ben Affleck’s character is telling Will to take the opportunity to really make something of himself because he wants him to succeed and have a career. That line is so well written along with everything else Ben and Matt wrote. “Good Will Hunting” helped give Matt Damon and Ben Affleck their big break. They both got to pursue careers in acting after “Good Will Hunting” became a huge success and they became the stars they are today. They were also proud of the script they had developed.
My rating on “Good Will Hunting” is five out of five stars
Music by Danny Elfman (Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, Big Fish and Justice League)
