Minnie Driver Revealed the Real Reason Behind Her Sad face at Matt Damon’s First Oscar Win That Will Break Your Heart
Minnie Driver and Matt Damon appeared together in 1997’s Good Will Hunting as Skylar and Will Hunting, respectively. The movie went on to receive critical acclaim, but the success of the movie was not only the talk of the town at the time but the budding romance between Damon and Driver garnered attention. In no time, Driver and Damon became one of the most talked about couples of the 1990s.
Unfortunately, their fairy tale romance ended sooner than one expected. But now conversations and reactions from their past have resurfaced online once again, giving the audience some tea to talk about. One of these moments is Minnie Driver’s reaction to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck winning their first Academy Award.
Minnie Driver recalls falling in love with Matt Damon while filming Good Will Hunting
Actress Minnie Driver, who played Skylar in Good Will Hunting opposite Matt Damon‘s character, was highly appreciated for her performance. While working on the movie, the actress and actor Matt Damon, who played the character of Will Hunting, fell in love not only on-screen but off-screen, too.
In an interview on the Late Show with David Letterman at the time via US Magazine, upon asking about the actress, Damon confessed that she ‘pretty much rocked my world’. In 2012, Driver recalled the time she was in love with Matt Damon and shared via Telegraph,
“In real life, by the time we filmed this scene, I was completely in love with Matt. I was blown away by his commitment to me as an actor, he was cute and intelligent and altogether a really charming package.”
Driver added that she was young and she fell for him, adding that it’s an occupational hazard. In a surprising change of events, Damon during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1998 declared that he was single after acknowledging that he was with Minnie Driver for a while but they were no longer romantically involved. The actress who did not expect to hear him declare that he shared in an interview with Los Angeles Times at the time reacted to the actor’s statement and said,
“It’s unfortunate that Matt went on the show. It seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate. Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously.”
The former partners never spoke to each other after the movie until they bumped into each other in 2021.
Minnie Driver explains the reason behind her ‘sad face’ at the 1998 Academy Awards
Two months after Matt Damon declared that he was single, the cast and crew of Good Will Hunting had to appear at the Academy Awards as the movie received nine nominations. Minnie Driver was nominated for Best Supporting Actress among their movies’ nine nods at the Oscars. The duo Matt Damon and Ben Affleck won Best Original Screenplay at the ceremony, and her reaction to them winning and giving their speech in which they thank her has resurfaced on social media. The actress took it upon herself to clarify the reason behind her reaction after a fan pointed out that she looked sad. She said,
“Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new girlfriend. I was devastated. Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us, and for this wonderful film.”
Also read: Matt Damon Relationship Timeline- Has He Dated Any Actresses Before Getting Hitched
Driver didn’t mention any name, but it was known that Damon left the Miramax pre-Oscars party the day before with Winona Ryder. They dated from 1998 to 2000. She had also added in another comment that ‘we’ve all been there’ hinting towards a heartbreak. In an interview with ET last year, Minnie Driver acknowledged the fact that it was intense dealing with their break up publicly. She said,
“I don’t care who you are,, that is agony and it’s like a strange, surreal dream. But I know he didn’t put that picture there. It’s so tricky, because it’s not deliberate, he couldn’t have helped how famous he became and how his life was being picked over, in the same way that mine was.”
Matt Damon is now married to Luciana Barroso, and they share four daughters. Minnie Driver is in a relationship with filmmaker Addison O’Dea.
