Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

I was 8, he was 10, he was a big kid, he played baseball, he was really cool, he had a bowl cut—those little feathered ones that we all wanted, of course—and he— And he was, you know, nice to me. And we were both interested in the same things. Just kids who grew up two blocks apart and both wanted to be actors.

Damon's mother, Lesley University professor Nancy Carlsson Paige,^[2] and Affleck's mother, schoolteacher Chris Affleck-Boldt,^[3] had known each other professionally for some time when, in 1980, they introduced their sons to one another during a playdate at Affleck's home.^[4] At the time, Damon was 10 years old, and Affleck was 8.^[5] Their homes were two blocks from each other in the same Cambridge neighborhood; the two later named their production company, Pearl Street Films, after the Cambridge street they walked on to visit one another.^[6]

The two became close during their high school years at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school with a prominent drama department.^[7] Damon says that their friendship solidified during a pick-up football game in 1986, when Affleck, "at the risk of his own life", intervened in a fight between Damon and a much larger and older student.^[8] That same year, in a school production of The Visit,^[9] Damon, then a junior, played freshman Affleck's father.^[10] In 1987, Damon starred in a school production of Pippin,^[9] while Affleck, who could not sing, worked in the crew.^[11]

The two aspired to become professional actors, holding "business lunches" in their school's cafeteria^[12] and opening a joint checking account to fund the cost of traveling from Boston to New York City for auditions.^[13] The password for this account was RiverP, an homage to actor River Phoenix, whom Damon and Affleck both admired.^[14] Among the films for which they unsuccessfully auditioned was Dead Poets Society; in 1990, they worked together at Cambridge's now-closed Janus Theater, which screened the film exclusively all summer.^[15] In 1989, the duo played extras in Field of Dreams. Recalls actor Kevin Costner, "[Damon and Affleck] would both lean in at the same time, lean back at the same time, look at each other at the same time. We talked, and they had this big enthusiasm. They were on fire."^[16]

In a 2007 episode of Inside the Actors Studio, Damon revealed that he'd been accepted to Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Harvard University, ultimately choosing Harvard. He enrolled in 1988 and studied English.^[17] During a course in which he was tasked with writing a one-act play, he wrote the beginnings of what would become Good Will Hunting.^[18]

Affleck enrolled at the University of Vermont in 1990, owing to what he describes as "unrequited love for a high school girlfriend." Soon after classes begun, he fractured his hip during a game of intramural basketball, an injury which required him to move about on crutches. Describing the period as "the worst two and a half months of [his] life," Affleck eventually called Damon at Thanksgiving, saying, "'You've got to pick me up! I can't walk that well. Come and get me now!'" Damon drove to Vermont later that day, retrieving Affleck and bringing him back to Boston.^[19] Affleck did not re-enroll, instead beginning a period of Middle Eastern Studies at Occidental College.^[20]

• Damon–Kimmel feud – long-running satirical feud between Damon and Jimmy Kimmel
• Matt & Ben is a satirical play written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers in 2002.
• Vulgar auteurism – several of their films are in this article
• Blockbuster cinema
• Indiewood – several of their films are also in this article
• Schwarzenegger–Stallone rivalry