Matt Damon broke out into the Hollywood scene with his Oscar winning movie, Good Will Hunting. Alongside his best friend Ben Affleck, the duo won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. And overnight, it was as if they had become industry idols. At just 27, Damon enjoyed one of the most significant moments in his when he walked up to the stage to receive his award.
But where his Oscar came with great delight, it wasn’t without some backstage chatter. The Oscar award it itself is not without controversy, from the lobbying, to the all-white nominations, to the alleged discrimination against POC, the Academy has had to answer to a lot of things.
Matt Damon’s Oscar Win and The Surreal Feeling of It All
If you ask Matt Damon, he is happy that his award didn’t come at anyone’s expense. At the time he won his first Oscar, Hollywood wasn’t the most transparent, something it has yet to achieve completely. But back then, things were worse, way muddier. But Damon and Affleck’s Good Will Hunting was one of those projects that deserved all the praise it got, even though the company that produced it would later come under much fire from industry people as well as others.
In a conversation with GQ, Damon was asked about his experience of winning the Oscar, and what it was like the day after. To this he said:
I remember specifically going home that night. My girlfriend at the time was asleep and I was awake. And it was there. I just remember having this crystal-clear feeling of “Thank God I didn’t fuck anybody over for that.” It was very clear. I suddenly had this image of this alternative life where I was 83 years old and getting the same thing, but having really chased it and going like, “Holy fuck, what have I done?”
The actor was understandably ecstatic to have won the award. But winning your debut nomination, that too an Oscar, would sure feel a little surreal to anyone.
When Oscars Became The Prime Season for Lobbying
Matt Damon’s ecstatic feeling of winning an Oscar at their debut was, though, not devoid of some displeasing gossip. Miramax, the production company that brought the script from Damon and Affleck, and made Good Will Hunting, was famous for their lobbying. While before that lobbying was probably only thought to be a political tool, Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax changed the Hollywood landscape with their approach to award season.
Where award seasons once used to be about which movie had the best performance, there was a time it changed to the one which was lobbied the most. While Oscar campaigning was nothing new, the aggressiveness Miramax showed sure turned a lot of heads. Weinstein turned this campaigning into a “bloodsport” that changed the whole game.
With time, while it is no longer a bloodsport, companies have not stopped campaigning for their movies and their actors. And that is not going to go away anytime soon either.
