A Beatles Documentary Inspired Matt Damon To Make More Movies With Ben Affleck Again

The Beatles: Get Back was a hit, but it landed particularly hard with Matt Damon. He was so moved by the documentary series that he was inspired to rekindle his working relationship with longtime pal Ben Affleck.

In a recent GQ interview, Damon said he told Affleck, “Who cares if we oversaturate the marketplace with movies we’re both in? We’re crazy if we don’t take advantage of the fact that we are both still here and able to do this.”

Damon spoke about this more deeply in a 2024 Deadline chat, saying:

“Ben and I hadn’t written together in so long, and I watched that Peter Jackson Beatles documentary, the one that ends with that performance on the roof. These guys are playing, and it’s The Beatles, and they’re live and you can see the joy that they’re playing with. They’re so excited and then Peter Jackson puts a chyron up that says, ‘This is the last live performance that the Beatles ever gave.’ I was watching it with my youngest daughter and she turned and looked at me. She said, ‘Dad, why are you crying?’ I had tears running down my face because of the missed opportunity that these four incredible musicians who clearly loved each other never got.

That was the impetus behind putting this company [Artists Equity] together. I was like, ‘What are we doing, man? Both of us, this is what we love to do more than anything. The only thing better is doing it together, in any capacity, whether he’s directing or whether we’re acting together or whether we’re producing together, or whether we’re just facilitating for other filmmakers. How much life do we have left and what are we going to do with it?’”

In the last few years, Damon and Affleck have made three movies together: The Last Duel, Air, and The Rip.

Read the full GQ interview here.