Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Friendship Timeline

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck met as children growing up near Boston — then won their first Oscars together

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have one of the most long-lasting and famous friendships in Hollywood history.

The Boston natives have been best friends since Affleck was in his single digits, and their bond has led them to collaborate onscreen numerous times, including their Oscar-winning debut Good Will Hunting and most recently with The Last Duel and the Nike drama Air.

"Ben has always had an incredible charisma. People are just getting introduced to it through film," Damon told The Los Angeles Times in 1999. "It's hard to think of your best friend as a movie star, but the fact that he is [stems from] the extent to which parts of the real him come through. He is somebody that everybody wants to be around."

After the success of the film, which won each of them their first Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, the duo considered going their separate ways professionally, but it didn't quite shake out that way.

"For a while, we thought maybe we should chill and just do other stuff, and not be Matt and Ben, Matt and Ben," Affleck recalled to Boston Magazine. "We have our company together, we're developing together. And Matt lives down the street from me like he used to. His kids are living with him, the way we used to live with our folks. The only difference is that we have pools."

From their Boston roots to their Hollywood careers, here's a look back at Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship through the years.

1980: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck meet

Affleck and Damon met at the respective ages of 8 and 10 years old when they lived two blocks away from one another in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They became fast friends when they discovered that they each loved baseball and acting.

Damon recalled in a November 2019 interview on Conan that his friendship with Affleck was solidified after Affleck, at the very last minute, defended Damon in a fight with a bigger kid in school. "I remember that was like a big moment," Damon said at the time. "He will put himself in a really bad spot for me. This is a good friend."

1986: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck begin auditioning together

Affleck and Damon began working together as actors before they could legally vote. Their mutual support was priceless, Affleck recalled in an interview with Parade, in part because Damon made him feel less alone.

"Before Matt, I was by myself. Acting was a solo activity where I'd just go off and do something, act in a little TV show or something, and no one understood it," Affleck said. "None of the other kids knew what it was I did, how it worked, or anything. All of a sudden I had this friend, Matt, and he gets it and wants to do it and thinks it's interesting and wants to talk about it. Soon both of us are doing it."

The Gone Girl actor recalled that when he was 14 and Damon was 16, they'd travel to New York City to audition together.

"We'd take the train. Or sometimes we'd even take the airplane, back when there was the Eastern Shuttle or People's Express. It cost like $20 to fly and you could smoke on the plane," Affleck said. "We were smoking like idiots because we thought we were really supposed to be grown-ups. It was pitiful."

April 1989: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck become big-screen costars for the first time

Damon and Affleck were uncredited extras together in the Kevin Costner hit Field of Dreams.

"I bet there were probably 3,000 extras in a big crowd scene when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are at the baseball game," Damon said on The Dan Patrick Show in July 2021. "Costner came out and hung out with the extras, and Ben and I went and struck up a conversation with him. And he probably gave us five minutes. He was incredibly generous with his time."

1990: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck go to separate colleges

After being inseparable through grammar and high school, Damon enrolled in Harvard University, though he and Affleck remained close. Two years later, Affleck attended the University of Vermont. Affleck explained that he chose the school because he wanted to be with his high school girlfriend.

"She wasn't even at the University but at another school nearby. But I thought if I went to a school near her, just maybe ... " he told Parade.

1992: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck costar in a movie for the first time

Damon and Affleck costarred alongside Brendan Fraser in School Ties in 1992. In the film, Affleck plays Chesty Smith and Damon stars as Charlie Dillon. Both characters are anti-semitic bullies who harass Fraser's Jewish character David Greene, though Dillon is significantly worse — with a much larger role for Damon.

Over the next several years, both Damon and Affleck would see varying degrees of success in film; according to The Los Angeles Times, Affleck crashed on Damon's couch when times got lean.

1994: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck co-write Good Will Hunting

Damon began working on his script for Good Will Hunting for a playwrighting class during his fifth year at Harvard. On a trip out to Los Angeles to shoot Geronimo: An American Legend, he brought the script with him and showed it to Affleck.

"Matt said, 'Look, will you help me write this? I'm not sure what it is or where to go.' So we started writing it sort of back and forth," Affleck recalled to Boston Magazine of their early work on the project. Their first drafts ended up being far different from the final film.

"We came up with this idea of the brilliant kid and his townie friends, where he was special and the government wanted to get their mitts on him. And it had a very Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run sensibility, where the kids from Boston were giving the NSA the slip all the time," the Batman actor explained.

"We would improvise and drink like six or twelve beers or whatever and record it with a tape recorder. At the time we imagined the professor and the shrink would be Morgan Freeman and [Robert] De Niro, so we'd do our imitations of Freeman and De Niro. It was kind of hopelessly naive and probably really embarrassing in that respect."

Affleck drew some of his inspiration for the title character from his own father, who at one point was a janitor at Harvard University.

In 1995, Affleck and Damon's script sold to Miramax for $1 million, but didn't go into production for almost another full year, during which the duo temporarily moved back to Boston.

September 27, 1996: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck costar in Glory Daze

Affleck stars as a disaffected soon-to-be college graduate named Jack in the indie comedy Glory Daze, with Damon in a non-speaking role as one of Jack's former roommates. Though it was considered a critical bomb, it had a slew of A-listers in the supporting cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Brendan Fraser, Alyssa Milano, Sam Rockwell and Leah Remini.

April 1997: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Good Will Hunting begins production

April 1997 was a busy month for the duo: Chasing Amy, in which Affleck starred and Damon had a supporting role, debuted, and they began filming Good Will Hunting, wrapping production in a mere nine weeks from the start date. The film hit theaters in a limited release that December and in wide release in January 1998.

Affleck joked of the experience to Boston Magazine, "It was just kinda like, 'Is it over?' It's just hard to almost internalize the fact that, okay, we're going to wait four years, and it's gonna be over in five seconds. Kind of like losing my virginity."

Later, the duo would reveal that they each cried on the set while filming. "Just, I guess, a mixture of joy and disbelief. And relief. And gratitude," Damon told GQ in September 2021. "That would probably be it. That was a really nice moment. I'm not ashamed to say it."

January 18, 1998: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck win big at the Golden Globes

Damon and Affleck's first taste at awards show glory came at the 1998 Golden Globes, where they took home awards for best screenplay.

March 23, 1998: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck win their first Oscars

Affleck and Damon delivered one of the most charming and memorable Oscars speeches of all time when they took the trophy for Best Original Screenplay.

"Ha! I just said to Matt that losing would suck and winning would be really scary, and it's really, really scary," Affleck said onstage.

"We were younger than we felt," Damon later recalled of the big moment to Boston Magazine. "I was 22 and Ben was 20 when we first started writing it. And then it came out when I was 27 and Ben was 25. I mean, Ben's still the youngest writer to ever win an Oscar for screenwriting."

November 1999: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share the screen again in Dogma

Teaming up with pal Kevin Smith, who they credited with helping Good Will Hunting get made, Damon and Affleck starred as fallen angels in Dogma.

December 2, 2001: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck team up for Project Greenlight

Damon and Affleck paired up for the documentary series Project Greenlight for HBO. The show followed first-time filmmakers in a contest to get their debut movies made. The series ran from December 2001 through 2005 and was revived in 2015 for a fourth season.

May 2002: Matt Damon silently joins Ben Affleck onscreen again

Affleck had a supporting role in the 2002 romantic comedy The Third Wheel, which starred Luke Wilson, Denise Richards and Jay Lacopo. Damon appeared in a non-speaking role.

March 2004: Matt Damon cameos in Bennifer's non-Gigli movie

Affleck costarred alongside his then-fiancée Jennifer Lopez in 2004's Jersey Girl, and Damon once again popped up in his friend's film for a cameo. Damon was credited as "PR Exec #2" and appeared in one scene in which his and Jason Lee's characters interview Affleck's for a public relations job.

March 28, 2010: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner honor Matt Damon

Damon was honored at the 2010 American Cinematheque Awards, and Affleck's then-wife Jennifer Garner took the stage to introduce him and poke fun at the pair's highly publicized and longtime friendship.

"Ben is half of one of the greatest love stories ever told. Not with me," the Yes Day star joked. "The actual prototype for the great Hollywood Bromance … Here's proof that love is alive and well in Hollywood. At least for my darling husband and my husband's darling husband."

Affleck then came on to honor his bestie, joking, "Matt always said to me, 'Ben, there are two things that are more important to me than anything else in this world.' Folks: 'Fame, money.' You did it, Matty! You got there!"

November 8, 2014: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reflect on their 20s

Chatting with PEOPLE at a celebration of Project Greenlight's latest victor, Affleck and Damon looked back at their early days of struggling financially and taking risks before achieving mainstream success in Hollywood.

"Those times were fun! We had a great time! We were young, we didn't have the kinds of fears that you have when you get into your forties if you haven't gotten to where you want to go," Affleck said. "We were in our twenties and we just had a blast!"

Damon quipped, "We've known each other for more than 30 years, and the fact that we have a company together is kind of a part of the whole thing." He added with a laugh, "We used to have business lunches together in high school when we had no business to talk about."

July 6, 2015: Sources say Matt Damon is "invaluable" to Ben Affleck following his divorce from Jennifer Garner

While Affleck went through a painful and public divorce from Garner in 2015, insiders say Damon was integral to his healing process.

"In the same way Jen is turning to her friends, for a long time, Ben has reached out to Matt, who is a true touch point for him," a source close to Garner and Affleck told PEOPLE at the time. Noting that Damon was a "solid friend," the source added, "They have a bond. Few people know Ben better than Matt, and that is really invaluable."

June 6, 2016: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are named "Guys of the Decade"

Spike TV's final Guys Choice Awards honored Damon and Affleck as the Guys of the Decade.

Affleck joked onstage, "I think it goes without saying that this is an award Matt and I have been dreaming about since we were little boys. I did Gigli and Matt did that Liberace movie and all of a sudden it all seemed out of reach. Then I did [Batman v Superman] and all of a sudden it was back in reach again."

He added, "Now we're the … coveted Dudes of the Decade … the Guys of the D—heads? What is it?"

Damon deadpanned in reply, "No, the D—heads of the Decade award."

February 26, 2017: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reunite at the Oscars

19 years after their Oscar win for Good Will Hunting, Damon and Affleck hit the Academy Awards stage together again. They pair presented the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, the award they famously won in 1998, with host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly introducing them as "Ben Affleck and guest."

July 2019: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck announce their teaming up for The Last Duel

The pals revealed they were planning their first writing collaboration since Good Will Hunting for The Last Duel, a historical action drama from director Ridley Scott. Damon and Affleck signed on to both co-write the script and costar in the film.

March 4, 2020: Ben Affleck jokes that he got Matt Damon's career going as a child star

Affleck joked on The Jess Cagle Show that his work as a child actor gave Damon the motivation to pursue acting for himself.

The Way Back star explained that when he was 7 or 8 years old, he would film The Voyage of Mimi, which he described as "cheesy."

"But I did like it, and it did two things. One it instilled in me a deep love and affection for this art and craft and line of work," Affleck said. "And it made Matt Damon so incredibly jealous, it drove him into a career in cinema. So I really take credit for that."

May 11, 2021: Matt Damon roots for a Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez reunion

A true friend knows the power of discretion, and Damon showed he knew how to keep his lips zipped about Affleck's love life. During a TODAY appearance, co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie asked Damon about the rumors of Affleck reuniting with former flame Lopez.

The Martian actor joked, "There's not enough liquor in the world for you to get me to say something about that." When pressed, he said it was a "fascinating story," adding, "I hope it's true. I love them both. I hope it's true. That would be awesome."

September 9, 2021: Ben Affleck says Matt Damon's friendship keeps him sane

In a GQ profile of Damon, Affleck credited his friendship with the Downsizing star for keeping him grounded despite his megastardom.

"My own kind of sanity and mental health really benefited from having someone who I grew up with and knew as a child who was also going through something similar — this 20-year-plus journey of being in the public eye — who I could reflect on it with honestly, talk things over with, be myself with, who I knew why we were friends, why he was interested and loved me, why I loved him," he explained.

Damon agreed, adding that discussing their friendship publicly wasn't necessarily his favorite thing to do.

"I don't want to be his friend in public, you know what I mean?" he said. "It's way too important a friendship for that, and it goes so beyond this career or anything. You know, it's a significant part of my life and not for public consumption in that way."

July 26, 2021: Matt Damon says he texts Ben Affleck to fact-check stories about him

Talk about a sign of a true Hollywood bromance: Damon told PEOPLE at the premiere of his movie Stillwater that he and Affleck text regularly, sometimes about reports about one another.

"We each got a whole mess of kids. We text pretty much about everything," he said. "There's so much in the press about him that normally I'm just fact-checking things that I read. 'Did this happen?' He's like, 'No that didn't happen.' "

The same night, Damon said he was happy for Affleck and Lopez getting back together, telling Extra, "He's the best. He deserves every happiness in the world. I'm glad for both of them."

August 13, 2021: Matt Damon says he's "pulling" for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

During a rapid-fire interview on The Carlos Watson Show in August 2021, the host asked Damon if he thought Affleck and Lopez would "make it."

"Oh man, no one's pulling harder than I am," he said. "They're both great. I just want for their happiness. They seem pretty happy right now."

He got his way: Damon attended the couple's wedding weekend in Georgia a year later.

October 13, 2021: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck explain how their screenwriting process changed since Good Will Hunting

After a series of COVID-19 delays, The Last Duel finally hit theaters in October 2021.

While promoting the film, Damon and Affleck said that co-writing Good Will Hunting scared them away from working together for years — but that they learned a lot in the 25 years since.

"Good Will Hunting took us so long. We were like unemployed, broke guys. It took us forever to write that screenplay," Damon recalled on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "I think we wrote thousands and thousands of pages. We didn't really know what we were doing and I think that kind of put us off writing again because we never thought we'd have the time."

Damon and Affleck credited The Last Duel co-writer Nicole Holofcener with their script's success, with Damon calling working the "great writer" a "really good decision."

January 13, 2022: Ben Affleck credits Matt Damon with saving his career

After Batman V Superman and Justice League each disappointed at the box office, Affleck credited Damon for helping him escape a career rut.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck said that Damon was a "principal influence" on his decision to work solely on movies and projects he loves, noting, "I want to do the things that would bring me joy."

April 20, 2022: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck take on Michael Jordan's Nike deal

PEOPLE confirmed in April 2022 that Damon and Affleck were teaming up to write and star in a film about NBA legend Michael Jordan's historic deal with Nike. Affleck signed on to direct and play Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while Damon was set to star as former Nike exec Sonny Vaccaro, who pushed the brand to make the deal with the sports icon when he was still a rookie.

Just two months later, Affleck and Damon were spotted on the set of the film, which would later be titled Air. The first trailer for the movie, which costars EGOT winner Viola Davis and her real-life husband Julius Tennon as Jordan's parents, dropped in February 2023.

November 21, 2022: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck launch a production company together

Damon and Affleck teamed up professionally yet again, launching the Artists Equity with RedBird Capital Partners production company. Affleck serves as CEO, while Damon is chief creative officer.

Affleck told The New York Times, "There was part of me, I have to admit, that was like, 'Come on, these studio guys sit behind desks and make phone calls. The artists are the ones who have to go off and actually make the movie and do all the work.' I have already been humbled. But my only regret is that I didn't have the sense of self to try this earlier," he continued. "Now I feel very ready to do it. I'm right at that period of life where you have enough experience and confidence and self-assuredness."

March 23, 2023: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reveal they once shared a bank account

While promoting Air, Damon and Affleck shared a number of tidbits about their friendship as rising actors in the industry. During an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, the Oscar winners shared that they once had a single bank account when they were just starting out.

"It was unusual, but we needed the money for auditions," Damon, recalled, saying it was "a weird thing in retrospect."

They even developed a set of rules for spending their funds outside of work-related reasons.

"You were allowed to take out $10 and get quarters and go to [the arcade] and play video games," Damon said. "Eventually we were allowed to try to buy beer, which never f---ing worked."

"I think that attitude really helped us in ways we couldn't anticipate," Affleck added. "Matt and I always felt like we're in it together. Like, 'Hey, I want to get the part, but I want you to get the part [too]."

March 27, 2023: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck attend the Air premiere in L.A.

Ahead of the release of their Nike drama on April 5, Damon and Affleck stepped out at the Air premiere in L.A.

Damon brought along his wife Luciana and daughters Isabella, Gia and Stella for the big event, while Affleck's wife Lopez accompanied him to the premiere.

April 5, 2023: Matt Damon says navigating fame would have been "unimaginably harder" without Ben Affleck

Damon told PEOPLE that the "shock of becoming famous" caused him to lean on Affleck early on in their careers.

"It's been really helpful to check in with Ben throughout this whole surreal process over the last 25 years," he said, noting that life would have been "unimaginably harder" without their friendship.

Affleck, who got noticeably choked up while talking about Damon, added: "Having Matt has meant the world. It's not just Matt. It's Matt's dad who I adore and love enormously. And his mom and stepdad, his brother. His kids, who just came to the [Air] premiere and made me want to burst into tears because they're so beautiful and grown up and amazing. You get to be part of somebody's whole life in that way. It's been an enormous gift."

April 14, 2023: Ben Affleck says he "would not suggest" living with Matt Damon

Affleck, his brother Casey Affleck and Damon lived together in Los Angeles when they were up-and-coming actors — but it wasn't always smooth sailing.

"Matt's a beautiful guy. I love him. He's my best friend. He's been great to me my whole life. He's a brilliant guy. I would not suggest living with him," Ben said on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

The Deep Water actor continued: "He has an ability ... you know people who block things out? One of the things he blocks out is the idea that when you finish with something, it has to be washed or thrown away."

Ben went on to tell James Corden of a time when he and Casey went on a cleaning strike for two weeks. It didn't phase Damon, and they conceded once maggots started growing in the apartment.

"God bless [Damon's] wife, Lucy. There's a place for you in heaven," he joked.

July 13, 2023: Matt Damon says being directed by Ben Affleck in Air was "great"

When talking with Sunday TODAY's Willie Geist, Damon had nothing but good things to say about working with Affleck on their film Air.

"It was great," he said when asked what it was like to be directed by his best friend. "You can waste so much time by trying to be polite. In the movie business and in theater, they've developed a whole vocabulary for how to talk to somebody — basically, how to tell somebody they're sucking. We can just say, 'You suck.' Which is really a gift because you get through the bulls--- faster."

July 21, 2023: Matt Damon says the death of his dad changed his relationship with Ben Affleck

When Damon's dad died in 2017, it was devastating for the Jason Bourne alum and Affleck.

"Ben was very, very close with him. It's like it changed something in us," Damon said during an interview on Who's Talking to Chris Wallace. "You start to see the end game and you start to feel like I want to make every second count. I don't want to fritter away time anymore."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.