Actress Minnie Driver gained fame when she starred in films such as Circle of Friends and the James Bond film GoldenEye. However, one of her greatest performances included her role as Skylar, the love interest of Matt Damon’s Will Hunting in the drama Good Will Hunting. The actress was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role.
Though the film won big at the Oscars, with Robin Williams winning Best Supporting Actor and the film winning Best Original Screenplay, Driver looked upset when Damon and Ben Affleck went on stage to collect their award. The actress recently revealed the ‘devastating’ reason behind her sad face at the ceremony in an Instagram comment.
Minnie Driver In Good Will Hunting
Minnie Driver began her acting career in the ’90s when she featured in multiple TV shows in England. She starred with stalwart actors such as Michael Gambon, Michael Sheen, and Steve Coogan before gaining notoriety for playing a minor role in the James Bond film GoldenEye. She also starred opposite Chris O’Donnell in the film Circle of Friends.
She had her breakthrough when she starred in the drama Good Will Hunting, which was written by and starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Driver played the role of Skylar in the film, a Harvard student with dreams of attending Stanford to pursue medicine. She meets Damon’s Will Hunting, a math genius who works as a janitor at MIT.
Also read: Minnie Driver Says Ex Matt Damon “Got famous very fast”, Reveals How He Dumped Her Before Oscar Win
Damon and Driver were lauded for their performances, with Minnie Driver being nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. Matt Damon was nominated for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck. The duo reportedly also started dating and had a relationship before publicly splitting up in 1998.
Driver spoke about the split to Entertainment Tonight,
“[The relationship] was just a sweet romance that was just a sweet love affair in the center of all of that stuff, but had a combustible ending, which then became the focus…I look back and it just feels really overly dramatic and kind of funny — brutal, but funny.”
The former couple reportedly right before the award season. Damon and Affleck invited their mothers as their ‘plus-ones’ for the Oscar ceremony.
Minnie Driver Revealed Why She Was Sad When Matt Damon Won The Oscar
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Excitedly, the two debutants went on stage to give their speech, being overwhelmed and deciding who to thank first. The duo had been friends since high school and had moved together to LA to make it as actors in the industry.
As the duo thanked each member of their crew and cast such as Robin Williams and director Gus Van Sant, the camera cut to Minnie Driver when they thanked her. However, the actress seemed sad and forlorn while looking at the boys on the stage. In a throwback video posted by the Instagram page Movie Shmood, Minnie Driver clarified why she looked sad in the comments,
“Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new gf… I was devastated. Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us and for this wonderful film!”
Though Damon and Affleck had attended the ceremony with their mothers, Matt Damon reportedly was dating Winona Ryder at the time. Minnie Driver’s reaction to the breakup seemed to be warranted as Damon had famously revealed he was single on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
