50 Fun Facts About Good Will Hunting

Who wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting?

They won the Oscar for it; Affleck at 25 became the youngest screenwriting winner ever, Damon at 27 the second youngest.

Who directed Good Will Hunting?

Affleck and Damon wanted him from the start; Miramax also met with Michael Mann, Ben Stiller, Mel Gibson and Chris Columbus first.

How did the script begin life?

He turned in about 40 pages instead of the one-act play requested; only the first Will-and-Sean scene survived verbatim.

What was Will Hunting's job at MIT?

He was placed there through a programme for parolees; Affleck's father and his girlfriend had worked as janitors at Harvard.

Which star plays the therapist Sean Maguire, in what many consider his finest dramatic role?

Affleck and Damon wrote the part as 'the Harvey Keitel part' and had improvised it on tape imitating Morgan Freeman.

Where does Sean Maguire teach psychology?

He is Lambeau's old college roommate and a fellow Southie.

Who plays MIT professor Gerald Lambeau?

He received the script while shooting Spielberg's Amistad.

Who plays Skylar, the Harvard student Will falls for?

Weinstein said he had wanted Ashley Judd; Driver later said he sent a sexist note objecting to her casting, which he denied.

Where is Skylar planning to go to medical school?

Will's refusal to move to California with her triggers their breakup and, eventually, his final drive west 'to see about a girl'.

What was the script originally about, before 60 pages were cut?

Rob Reiner and William Goldman both told them to drop the thriller and focus on Will and Sean.

Which studio first bought the script in November 1994, and for how much?

They took the deal on Richard Linklater's advice and blew the money in six months, partly on a Jeep Cherokee and a party house by the Hollywood Bowl.

How did the writers test whether their first studio's executives were still reading the rewrites?

Nobody at Castle Rock mentioned it; Harvey Weinstein asked them to remove it, proving he had read the script.

Which director brought the script to Harvey Weinstein at Miramax and served as executive producer?

Affleck had asked him to direct; Smith said he 'wouldn't dare' given its beauty.

How much did Miramax pay to buy the script out of turnaround in 1995?

Castle Rock had given the duo 30 days to find a buyer at that price or lose the film.

Which Braveheart director developed the film for months before Damon asked him to step aside?

Damon feared he and Affleck would be too old for the roles by the time Gibson was free.

Where did the writers get the title Good Will Hunting?

They promised him $10,000 for it if the film sold; he appears as a student in one of Lambeau's classes.

The star playing Sean slashed his usual eight-figure fee to what?

His deal gave him a growing share of first-dollar gross once the film passed a box-office threshold Miramax did not believe it would reach.

What was the film's approximate budget and worldwide gross?

It opened one week before Titanic and was praised as a textbook piece of counterprogramming.

How did Good Will Hunting fare at the 70th Academy Awards?

Wins for Williams and for the screenplay; Damon, Driver, Van Sant, editor Pietro Scalia, Elfman and Elliott Smith were among the nominees.

At what age did the film's co-writer become the youngest person ever to win a screenwriting Oscar?

Damon was 27, making him the second youngest.

Which singer-songwriter wrote 'Miss Misery' for the film and performed it at the Oscars?

He had to be talked into performing, said he mainly wanted to wear his white suit, and lost to 'My Heart Will Go On'.

Which song beat 'Miss Misery' to the Best Original Song Oscar?

Madonna announced the winner with a sarcastic 'What a shocker!' but later said she greatly admired Smith.

Who composed the film's score?

He also arranged Elliott Smith's 'Between the Bars' with strings and reworked 'Miss Misery' for the awards shows.

Which sporting event did Sean give up tickets to on the night he met his wife?

He told his friends he had to go 'see about a girl'; the producers tried to get the Red Sox to license Carlton Fisk's home run footage.

What are the last words of the film, improvised on set by the actor playing Sean?

Williams improvised often on set and needed at least seven takes to feel he had covered every emotion.

Which famous line did Van Sant initially cut before the writers insisted it stay?

It comes at the end of the Harvard bar scene where Will humiliates a ponytailed grad student.

What phrase does Sean repeat to Will in the film's emotional climax?

It follows their conversation about both being victims of childhood abuse.

Where were most of the film's interiors shot?

University of Toronto buildings like Knox College and Whitney Hall stood in for MIT and Harvard; the exteriors were done around Boston.

Where was the famous bench scene between Will and Sean filmed, drawing 3,000 onlookers?

Boston police had to provide security while Damon and Williams shot it.

Which South Boston bar did the actor playing Sean insist on filming in after a night out there?

He liked the gritty atmosphere and rang Weinstein to say he wanted scenes shot there.

Who plays Judge Malone in the courtroom scene?

He had been tried and acquitted for murder in the very same South Boston courtroom.

Which Nobel-winning physicist told the writers that Will should be a mathematician, not a physicist?

He introduced them to MIT's Daniel Kleitman, who suggested the P versus NP problem and wrote the blackboard equations.

Which of these was the writers' original ending?

Van Sant proposed killing Chuckie instead; Terrence Malick suggested the ending they used, Will following Skylar to California.

Which director suggested the ending in which Will drives off after Skylar?

He was the best friend of Affleck's godfather.

What agency does Will scornfully turn down a job with?

His speech about why he should not work there is a leftover of the original thriller version.

Why did Casey Affleck initially turn down the role of Morgan, written for him?

Ben plays Chuckie and Cole Hauser plays Billy; Casey eventually agreed to appear.

Whose success story with Reservoir Dogs inspired the two unknown writers to keep going?

Damon also kept reminding executives of Sylvester Stallone writing and starring in Rocky.

Which 2012 film, directed by one of the writers, has a scene inspired by a humiliating Good Will Hunting meeting?

Interscope founder Ted Field had set up a meeting just to tell them he would not buy the film.

What did Miramax move up after the film scored the highest of any test screening in its history?

It opened wide two weeks later, finishing second to Titanic.

Which real-life mathematician appears as Lambeau's assistant Tom?

Kleitman and O'Donnell also had small roles and served as on-set consultants.

What real prank inspired Will's anonymous blackboard proof?

The bogus equation stayed on the board for months.

Which Boston eateries did the writers champion over the chain restaurants Miramax wanted?

The L Street Tavern, a Dunkin' Donuts and an Au Bon Pain also appear.

Stellan Skarsgård received the Good Will Hunting script while shooting which Spielberg film?

He accepted the role of Fields Medal-winning professor Gerald Lambeau and later won the European Film Academy's World Cinema award.

Which Harvard alumnus vouched for the production so it could film on the university's campus?

Harvard had initially refused; the crew ended up shooting in front of Dunster and Lowell House.

Robin Williams first heard of Good Will Hunting from which director he had made Jack with?

Damon's casting in the same director's The Rainmaker also gave Harvey Weinstein confidence in him as a leading man.

Which earlier film did Good Will Hunting surpass as Miramax's most successful US release?

It finished as the seventh highest-grossing film of 1997 in a year critics saw as a resurgence of character-driven stories.

Which actor did Harvey Weinstein say he had originally wanted to cast as Skylar?

Van Sant said of Minnie Driver's audition, 'She just blew us away.'

Affleck and Damon next wrote a screenplay together for which 2021 Ridley Scott film?

They said Good Will Hunting had taken so long to finish that it put them off other screenwriting projects for decades.

How long was the script Damon turned in for his Harvard playwriting class instead of a one-act play?

He wrote it during his fifth year at Harvard before Affleck joined him to expand it into a feature.

Which award did Robin Williams win from the Screen Actors Guild for Good Will Hunting?

He also took the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, one of the film's two Academy Award wins from nine nominations.