Connection to the previous post (DEATH TO SMOOCHY): Robin Williams starred in both films.
Ratings: IMDB ― 8.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 97%, ME ― 88%
Sean: [in a gentlemen's bar] Hey, Gerry, In the 1960s there was a young man that graduated from the University of Michigan. Did some brilliant work in mathematics. Specifically bounded harmonic functions. Then he went on to Berkeley. He was assistant professor. Showed amazing potential. Then he moved to Montana, and blew the competition away.
Ratings: IMDB ― 8.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 97%, ME ― 88%
Sean: [in a gentlemen's bar] Hey, Gerry, In the 1960s there was a young man that graduated from the University of Michigan. Did some brilliant work in mathematics. Specifically bounded harmonic functions. Then he went on to Berkeley. He was assistant professor. Showed amazing potential. Then he moved to Montana, and blew the competition away.
Lambeau: Yeah, so who was he?
Sean: Ted Kaczynski.
Lambeau: Haven't heard of him.
Sean: [yelling to the bartender] Hey, Timmy!
Timmy: Yo.
Sean: Who's Ted Kaczynski?
Timmy: Unabomber.
[Lambeau winces as he realizes the point Sean is making]
Robin Williams as Sean and Stellan Skarsgård as Lambeau
Trivia (From IMDB):
William Goldman says he wrote "every word" of the script. As an Oscar winner, why would he lie?
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck found a clever way to choose the right studio for their script: the story goes that on page sixty of the script, they wrote a completely out-of-nowhere sex scene between Will and Chuckie. They took it to every major studio, and nobody even mentioned the scene. When they met with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, he said, "I only have one really big note on the script. About page sixty, the two leads, both straight men, have a sex scene. What the hell is that?" Damon and Affleck explained that they put that scene specifically in there, to show them who actually read the script, and who didn't. As Weinstein was the only person who brought it up, Miramax was the studio chosen to produce the film.
After the 2014 death of Robin Williams, the Boston Public Garden park bench where he and Matt Damon had their conversation scene, became an impromptu memorial site for the actor with people leaving flowers, quotes and various items at the bench. A petition has been passed around to erect a statue in Williams' memory near the bench.
When Robin Williams and Matt Damon were shooting the scene on the bench in the Public Garden, in the movie, it seems like they're the only people in the park. Robin Williams being a massive star, there were, at one point, over three thousand people out there, watching that scene.
The very first day of the shooting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck started crying out of happiness, because it was a scene between Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård, accomplished actors, doing Damon's and Affleck's scene verbatim, and they had waited so long (four years) for this to happen.
The lines in the scene when Sean talks about his late wife's farting antics were ad-libbed by Robin Williams. That is why Matt Damon was laughing so hard. If you watch the scene carefully you can notice the camera shaking a bit, possibly due to the cameraman laughing as well.
Casey Affleck ad-libbed most of his lines. This frustrated Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant during filming, but they later admitted that Casey's improvised lines were much funnier and better than what had been originally written for him.
When Robin Williams read the script via Francis Ford Coppola and really liked it, his one question for Coppola was, "Who are these guys?"
Initially, Producer Harvey Weinstein did not want Minnie Driver at all for the role of Skylar, feeling she wasn't cute enough for the part. Because Gus, Matt, and Ben wanted her in the movie, Weinstein ultimately relented, and Driver went on to be nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar.
When Matt Damon was in his fifth year at Harvard, he was in a playwriting class. The culmination of it was to write a one-act play, and he just started writing a movie, which, with the help of Ben Affleck, became this movie.
When Robin Williams won the Oscar for his supporting role, he sent Peer Augustinski, who dubbed his voice in German, a small replica of the Oscar statue with a note saying, "Thank you for making me famous in Germany."
According to Matt Damon, Robin Williams' best addition is the last line of the film.
Minnie Driver's character Skylar is named after Damon's girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein, who left Damon for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich before filming began. Damon and Driver became romantically involved during production.
Gus Van Sant, at one point, asked Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to re-write the script, so that Chuckie is killed in a construction accident. Damon and Affleck protested, but reluctantly wrote the scene in. After Van Sant read it, he agreed that it was a terrible idea.
One of two personal favorite movies of Matt Damon. The other being The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
Matt Damon, a former Harvard student, originally intended to make the title character a physics prodigy. He discussed his idea with Sheldon L. Glashow, a Nobel laureate in physics, and at the time a Harvard professor. Glashow told him that the premise did not ring true to him, and suggested that the main character be a math prodigy instead. He referred Damon to his brother-in-law, Daniel Kleitman, a professor of mathematics at M.I.T., who provided advice on the story. Glashow and Kleitman are thanked in the credits.
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Gus Van Sant painted the picture that hangs in Sean Maguire's (Robin Williams') office.
The phone number printed on the sign for the construction company, that they are working for, is the actual phone number of a Woburn, Massachusetts construction company, that Matt Damon worked for while going to high school in Cambridge.
When Will (Matt Damon) and Sean (Robin Williams) meet for the first time in Sean's office, Will recommends that Sean read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". As a boy, Matt Damon was Zinn's neighbor, and provided the voice for the CD recording of that book.
According to Matt Damon, when the project was set up at Castle Rock Entertainment, all he and Affleck had heard for the casting over them, was "Leo and Brad", referring to Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
An earlier draft of the script had Will Hunting being recruited by the government to become a cryptanalyst (based on his mathematical ability). Rob Reiner reportedly reviewed the script and advised Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to eliminate this subplot. However, there is a reference to it in the final script: the scene where Will meets with N.S.A. Agents, and explains why he doesn't want to work for them.
When Matt Damon and Ben Affleck met with Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995) had just come out. But they hadn't seen Braveheart and Harvey Weinstein encouraged them to lie. So the first thing they said was, "We just want to tell you how much we loved Braveheart!"
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After Mel Gibson dropped out of directing, Michael Mann expressed interest in directing. However, he wanted to make two major changes: He wanted Will and his friends to be car thieves, and he did not want Matt Damon for the lead role, since he was still relatively unknown then. The producers, who wanted Damon, suggested the Mann film some screentests with Damon and Ben Affleck. After Mann filmed the screentests, he went back to the producers and said he still did not want Damon in the lead, so the producers and Miramax parted ways with Mann, since the film was Damon and Affleck's project from the start.
The job interview, on which Will sends Chuckie, is for a company called Holden & McNeil. Ben Affleck's character in Chasing Amy (1997) is named Holden McNeil.
The odd and perplexing line, "I swallowed a bug", said by Morgan (Casey Affleck) in the Harvard bar scene, is a reference to the documentary "Hearts of Darkness", as well as actor Marlon Brando. The behind-the-scenes documentary tells of the making and struggles Francis Ford Coppola had during the production of Apocalypse Now (1979). In a look at one of Marlon Brando's scenes, his line is interrupted when he accidentally swallows a real bug, and states to Francis Ford Coppola off-camera, "I swallowed a bug."
In a Boston Magazine retrospective interview, Ben Affleck mentioned that he and Matt Damon wrote the part of Sean Maguire with Morgan Freeman or Robert De Niro in mind, and he and Damon would imitate their voices when reviewing the dialogue in the script.
In his first scene, Robin Williams is standing in front of a blackboard. Behind him, are written on the blackboard in chalk, the words "Susser 1969". In 1969, Williams graduated from Redwood High School, Larkspur, and then continued at College of Marin, Kentfield just a few blocks away from the High School. He became acquainted with the Drama Department there at the College of Marin, and performed in the production "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. Robin Williams' first stage director was the late Harvey Susser. Thus, the blackboard "code words" seem to say: "Hey, Harvey! See this! Now I'm the teacher!"
Roger Ebert asked in his "Movie Answer Man" column for suggestions as to who Will's brothers Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny, and Brian were named after. Gina Dante of Minneapolis suggested that they were "directors whom Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would like to work with": Marc Rocco, Sir Richard Attenborough, Danny Boyle, Terry Gilliam, Mikael Salomon, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Tom Hanks, Joel Schumacher, Robert Redford, John Woo, and Brian De Palma.
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Sean's office is set up like a baseball diamond, with four chairs representing the bases, and a table in the middle, like a pitcher's mound. This is most noticeable during the Carlton Fisk homerun reenactment.
The mathematical equations seen in the opening credits are part of a math technique called "Fourier Analysis" which approximates functions by sines and cosines. It's used a lot in physics and engineering.
The script was originally developed by Castle Rock, Rob Reiner's production company. When they didn't know what to do with it, Kevin Smith took the script to Miramax. It became the highest grossing film in Miramax history, until Chicago (2002) topped it.
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When Will is mopping the floor at the beginning of the movie, his name tag identifies him as "Bob" rather than "Will".
After Matt Damon and Ben Affleck sold their script to Castle Rock, it was printed in Daily Variety that they were going to get six hundred thousand dollars for it. By using a copy of the Daily Variety, because Affleck and Damon had no credit at the time, they rented a house that was three thousand dollars a month.
Sean Maguire was based on Matt Damon's mother and Ben Affleck's father, kind of a synthesis of the two.
The subway car Will rides in is a model that was retired in 1994. The MBTA took one out of mothballs, and cleaned it up for the production.
Mel Gibson was offered a chance to direct, even meeting with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Executive Producer Harvey Weinstein, but ultimately passed on directing.
To date, this is the film with the highest U.S. box-office gross with Kevin Smith's name attached to it. All his own films, that he has written and directed, have not grossed more than thirty-five million dollars at the U.S. box-office.
Matt Damon was MIT's 2016 commencement speaker. He commented in his speech that it was the second time he fake-graduated from there.
The infamous "How do you like them apples?" line that Will (Matt Damon) says at the window was taken verbatim from Jack Nicholson's character in Chinatown (1974).
In the scene on the park bench, Robin Williams gives an example of love that Will hasn't experienced as "going to hell and back for it." In his next movie, What Dreams May Come(1998), Williams does just that for his love, played by Annabella Sciorra, after she commits suicide.
While a guest on Late Show with David Letterman (1993), Robin Williams joked about his experience after winning an Oscar for his role in this film: "It's amazing. When you win the Academy Award, you have, like, about a about a week where everyone's like, 'Hey, Good Will Hunting--way to go! Good Will Hunting, Academy Award, way to go!' And two weeks later, it's like, "Hey, Mork!' How are ya?'"
The lecture hall in the movie is actually a lecture hall in McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP); a building at the University of Toronto (St. George Campus) in Toronto, Ontario.
Morgan O'Malley says that the crew has run into a "barney" at the Harvard bar. Barney is Boston slang for a Harvard student.
According to Gus Van Sant, the moment where Harvey Weinstein really wanted to get the movie done was partly due to Matt Damon being cast in The Rainmaker (1997) by Francis Ford Coppola which validated the fact that Damon was a leading man.
Coupled with Matt Damon being cast as the lead in The Rainmaker (1997), and Robin Williams signing onto the film, had lead to it getting fast tracked for production.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Casey Affleck; and one Oscar nominee: Minnie Driver.
Many years after the fact, Ben Affleck admitted to having had concerns after the film's success that he would just be regarded as "Matt Damon's stupid friend. Yes, that stayed with me for a while.", from an appearance on The Graham Norton Show (2007).
As of 2009, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have both co-written one other script each, although not with each other; Damon co-wrote Gerry (2002) with Gus Van Sant and Ben's brother Casey Affleck, and Ben Affleck directed and co-wrote (with his childhood friend Aaron Stockard) the script for Gone Baby Gone (2007). In 2010, Ben Affleck directed The Town (2010), for which he had also co-written the screenplay.
In an interview, between Matt Damon and Kevin Smith at IMDb's 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Matt mentions that Kevin was instrumental in the movie being made. As it was Kevin that brought the script directly to Harvey Weinstein, when the other studios were not showing interest.
While looking over some of Will's work, Lambeau remarks, "I see you used Maclaurin here," referring to a mathematical representation called the Maclaurin series. Coincidentally, McLaurin was Robin Williams' middle name.
The Ontario Specialty Company, at 133 Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, was the setting for Matt Damon and Minnie Driver's date. The real-life manager of the store, Anna Zejn makes an appearance.
Matt Damon was twenty-six when the movie was filmed. His character, Will, was twenty.
After Matt Damon and Ben Affleck removed the N.S.A. stuff from the script, Castle Rock, by that time, owning the rights to the script, gave them time to go out and find somebody who will buy their version of the movie, meaning a director. But there was a price tag: Castle Rock wanted to get their money back. So if they couldn't find anybody to buy it, when it came back to Castle Rock, they were not going to be the stars anymore.
First film in Kevin Smith's and Scott Mosier's filmography to receive Oscar recognition. Though they weren't nominated themselves, they were still instrumental in getting the films production even happening. Kevin Smith was friends with Ben Affleck after his casting in Mallrats (1996), then cast him as the lead in Chasing Amy (1997). Following Matt Damon's cameo role, along with Brian O'Halloran as television producers, was after Affleck introduced the pair, which led to them giving Smith the screenplay, ultimately landing with Harvey Weinstien of Miramax.
The very last line in the credits is "In Memory Of Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs".
In the café scene, where Will announces to Skylar that he was hoping to "get laid", an extra walking past and peering into the window can be identified as Christian Stolte.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Cole Hauser appeared in School Ties (1992).
Robin Williams signing on, definitely was the linchpin for the movie getting made.
This is the first film in which the top billed actor (excluding films in which the cast is billed alphabetically) wins an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Anthony Minghella was offered the role of Henry Lipkin, but was unable to take the role, due to scheduling conflicts.
Ben Affleck's father and stepmother worked as janitors at Harvard University. In 2000, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon spoke at a rally at Harvard University in support of an increased living wage for all workers on campus. Ben Affleck narrates a documentary, Occupation (2002), about a sit-in organized by the Harvard Living Wage Campaign.
When the project was in turnaround at Castle Rock, Ben Affleck showed the script to Kevin Smith while working with him on Chasing Amy (1997), which led to Smith and Scott Mosier coming on board as producers. Chasing Amy (1997) also featured cameos by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon.
In the film, Skylar talks about her father having died years prior. Skylar Satenstein's father, Frank Satenstein, a television director, died in 1982, years before Skylar and Matt Damon were dating at Harvard.
Andrew Scheinman and Michael Mann were considered to direct.
Referenced in 2 Fast 2 Furious by Paul Walker in the freeway race, "How do you like them apples".
Matt Damon and Casey Affleck appeared in the Ocean's trilogy.
Jan Sverák refused to direct it.
Michael Winterbottom was approached to direct, but declined.
Stellan Skarsgård previously appeared in The Hunt for Red October (1990) and the Swedish film Insomnia (1997). Ben Affleck appeared in The Sum of All Fears (2002), while Robin Williams appeared in the English-language remake Insomnia (2002).
The movie was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time" by Premiere.
Skyler's phone number is 555-1294.
As of 2018, features Minnie Driver's only Oscar nominated performance.
Spoilers
Trivia (From IMDB):
William Goldman says he wrote "every word" of the script. As an Oscar winner, why would he lie?
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck found a clever way to choose the right studio for their script: the story goes that on page sixty of the script, they wrote a completely out-of-nowhere sex scene between Will and Chuckie. They took it to every major studio, and nobody even mentioned the scene. When they met with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, he said, "I only have one really big note on the script. About page sixty, the two leads, both straight men, have a sex scene. What the hell is that?" Damon and Affleck explained that they put that scene specifically in there, to show them who actually read the script, and who didn't. As Weinstein was the only person who brought it up, Miramax was the studio chosen to produce the film.
After the 2014 death of Robin Williams, the Boston Public Garden park bench where he and Matt Damon had their conversation scene, became an impromptu memorial site for the actor with people leaving flowers, quotes and various items at the bench. A petition has been passed around to erect a statue in Williams' memory near the bench.
When Robin Williams and Matt Damon were shooting the scene on the bench in the Public Garden, in the movie, it seems like they're the only people in the park. Robin Williams being a massive star, there were, at one point, over three thousand people out there, watching that scene.
The very first day of the shooting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck started crying out of happiness, because it was a scene between Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård, accomplished actors, doing Damon's and Affleck's scene verbatim, and they had waited so long (four years) for this to happen.
The lines in the scene when Sean talks about his late wife's farting antics were ad-libbed by Robin Williams. That is why Matt Damon was laughing so hard. If you watch the scene carefully you can notice the camera shaking a bit, possibly due to the cameraman laughing as well.
Casey Affleck ad-libbed most of his lines. This frustrated Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Gus Van Sant during filming, but they later admitted that Casey's improvised lines were much funnier and better than what had been originally written for him.
When Robin Williams read the script via Francis Ford Coppola and really liked it, his one question for Coppola was, "Who are these guys?"
Initially, Producer Harvey Weinstein did not want Minnie Driver at all for the role of Skylar, feeling she wasn't cute enough for the part. Because Gus, Matt, and Ben wanted her in the movie, Weinstein ultimately relented, and Driver went on to be nominated for a Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar.
When Matt Damon was in his fifth year at Harvard, he was in a playwriting class. The culmination of it was to write a one-act play, and he just started writing a movie, which, with the help of Ben Affleck, became this movie.
When Robin Williams won the Oscar for his supporting role, he sent Peer Augustinski, who dubbed his voice in German, a small replica of the Oscar statue with a note saying, "Thank you for making me famous in Germany."
According to Matt Damon, Robin Williams' best addition is the last line of the film.
Minnie Driver's character Skylar is named after Damon's girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein, who left Damon for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich before filming began. Damon and Driver became romantically involved during production.
Gus Van Sant, at one point, asked Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to re-write the script, so that Chuckie is killed in a construction accident. Damon and Affleck protested, but reluctantly wrote the scene in. After Van Sant read it, he agreed that it was a terrible idea.
One of two personal favorite movies of Matt Damon. The other being The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
Matt Damon, a former Harvard student, originally intended to make the title character a physics prodigy. He discussed his idea with Sheldon L. Glashow, a Nobel laureate in physics, and at the time a Harvard professor. Glashow told him that the premise did not ring true to him, and suggested that the main character be a math prodigy instead. He referred Damon to his brother-in-law, Daniel Kleitman, a professor of mathematics at M.I.T., who provided advice on the story. Glashow and Kleitman are thanked in the credits.
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Gus Van Sant painted the picture that hangs in Sean Maguire's (Robin Williams') office.
The phone number printed on the sign for the construction company, that they are working for, is the actual phone number of a Woburn, Massachusetts construction company, that Matt Damon worked for while going to high school in Cambridge.
When Will (Matt Damon) and Sean (Robin Williams) meet for the first time in Sean's office, Will recommends that Sean read Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States". As a boy, Matt Damon was Zinn's neighbor, and provided the voice for the CD recording of that book.
According to Matt Damon, when the project was set up at Castle Rock Entertainment, all he and Affleck had heard for the casting over them, was "Leo and Brad", referring to Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
An earlier draft of the script had Will Hunting being recruited by the government to become a cryptanalyst (based on his mathematical ability). Rob Reiner reportedly reviewed the script and advised Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to eliminate this subplot. However, there is a reference to it in the final script: the scene where Will meets with N.S.A. Agents, and explains why he doesn't want to work for them.
When Matt Damon and Ben Affleck met with Mel Gibson, Braveheart (1995) had just come out. But they hadn't seen Braveheart and Harvey Weinstein encouraged them to lie. So the first thing they said was, "We just want to tell you how much we loved Braveheart!"
156 of 159 found this interesting | Share this
After Mel Gibson dropped out of directing, Michael Mann expressed interest in directing. However, he wanted to make two major changes: He wanted Will and his friends to be car thieves, and he did not want Matt Damon for the lead role, since he was still relatively unknown then. The producers, who wanted Damon, suggested the Mann film some screentests with Damon and Ben Affleck. After Mann filmed the screentests, he went back to the producers and said he still did not want Damon in the lead, so the producers and Miramax parted ways with Mann, since the film was Damon and Affleck's project from the start.
The job interview, on which Will sends Chuckie, is for a company called Holden & McNeil. Ben Affleck's character in Chasing Amy (1997) is named Holden McNeil.
The odd and perplexing line, "I swallowed a bug", said by Morgan (Casey Affleck) in the Harvard bar scene, is a reference to the documentary "Hearts of Darkness", as well as actor Marlon Brando. The behind-the-scenes documentary tells of the making and struggles Francis Ford Coppola had during the production of Apocalypse Now (1979). In a look at one of Marlon Brando's scenes, his line is interrupted when he accidentally swallows a real bug, and states to Francis Ford Coppola off-camera, "I swallowed a bug."
In a Boston Magazine retrospective interview, Ben Affleck mentioned that he and Matt Damon wrote the part of Sean Maguire with Morgan Freeman or Robert De Niro in mind, and he and Damon would imitate their voices when reviewing the dialogue in the script.
In his first scene, Robin Williams is standing in front of a blackboard. Behind him, are written on the blackboard in chalk, the words "Susser 1969". In 1969, Williams graduated from Redwood High School, Larkspur, and then continued at College of Marin, Kentfield just a few blocks away from the High School. He became acquainted with the Drama Department there at the College of Marin, and performed in the production "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. Robin Williams' first stage director was the late Harvey Susser. Thus, the blackboard "code words" seem to say: "Hey, Harvey! See this! Now I'm the teacher!"
Roger Ebert asked in his "Movie Answer Man" column for suggestions as to who Will's brothers Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny, and Brian were named after. Gina Dante of Minneapolis suggested that they were "directors whom Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would like to work with": Marc Rocco, Sir Richard Attenborough, Danny Boyle, Terry Gilliam, Mikael Salomon, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Tom Hanks, Joel Schumacher, Robert Redford, John Woo, and Brian De Palma.
281 of 298 found this interesting | Share this
Sean's office is set up like a baseball diamond, with four chairs representing the bases, and a table in the middle, like a pitcher's mound. This is most noticeable during the Carlton Fisk homerun reenactment.
The mathematical equations seen in the opening credits are part of a math technique called "Fourier Analysis" which approximates functions by sines and cosines. It's used a lot in physics and engineering.
The script was originally developed by Castle Rock, Rob Reiner's production company. When they didn't know what to do with it, Kevin Smith took the script to Miramax. It became the highest grossing film in Miramax history, until Chicago (2002) topped it.
110 of 117 found this interesting | Share this
When Will is mopping the floor at the beginning of the movie, his name tag identifies him as "Bob" rather than "Will".
After Matt Damon and Ben Affleck sold their script to Castle Rock, it was printed in Daily Variety that they were going to get six hundred thousand dollars for it. By using a copy of the Daily Variety, because Affleck and Damon had no credit at the time, they rented a house that was three thousand dollars a month.
Sean Maguire was based on Matt Damon's mother and Ben Affleck's father, kind of a synthesis of the two.
The subway car Will rides in is a model that was retired in 1994. The MBTA took one out of mothballs, and cleaned it up for the production.
Mel Gibson was offered a chance to direct, even meeting with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Executive Producer Harvey Weinstein, but ultimately passed on directing.
To date, this is the film with the highest U.S. box-office gross with Kevin Smith's name attached to it. All his own films, that he has written and directed, have not grossed more than thirty-five million dollars at the U.S. box-office.
Matt Damon was MIT's 2016 commencement speaker. He commented in his speech that it was the second time he fake-graduated from there.
The infamous "How do you like them apples?" line that Will (Matt Damon) says at the window was taken verbatim from Jack Nicholson's character in Chinatown (1974).
In the scene on the park bench, Robin Williams gives an example of love that Will hasn't experienced as "going to hell and back for it." In his next movie, What Dreams May Come(1998), Williams does just that for his love, played by Annabella Sciorra, after she commits suicide.
While a guest on Late Show with David Letterman (1993), Robin Williams joked about his experience after winning an Oscar for his role in this film: "It's amazing. When you win the Academy Award, you have, like, about a about a week where everyone's like, 'Hey, Good Will Hunting--way to go! Good Will Hunting, Academy Award, way to go!' And two weeks later, it's like, "Hey, Mork!' How are ya?'"
The lecture hall in the movie is actually a lecture hall in McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP); a building at the University of Toronto (St. George Campus) in Toronto, Ontario.
Morgan O'Malley says that the crew has run into a "barney" at the Harvard bar. Barney is Boston slang for a Harvard student.
According to Gus Van Sant, the moment where Harvey Weinstein really wanted to get the movie done was partly due to Matt Damon being cast in The Rainmaker (1997) by Francis Ford Coppola which validated the fact that Damon was a leading man.
Coupled with Matt Damon being cast as the lead in The Rainmaker (1997), and Robin Williams signing onto the film, had lead to it getting fast tracked for production.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Casey Affleck; and one Oscar nominee: Minnie Driver.
Many years after the fact, Ben Affleck admitted to having had concerns after the film's success that he would just be regarded as "Matt Damon's stupid friend. Yes, that stayed with me for a while.", from an appearance on The Graham Norton Show (2007).
As of 2009, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have both co-written one other script each, although not with each other; Damon co-wrote Gerry (2002) with Gus Van Sant and Ben's brother Casey Affleck, and Ben Affleck directed and co-wrote (with his childhood friend Aaron Stockard) the script for Gone Baby Gone (2007). In 2010, Ben Affleck directed The Town (2010), for which he had also co-written the screenplay.
In an interview, between Matt Damon and Kevin Smith at IMDb's 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Matt mentions that Kevin was instrumental in the movie being made. As it was Kevin that brought the script directly to Harvey Weinstein, when the other studios were not showing interest.
While looking over some of Will's work, Lambeau remarks, "I see you used Maclaurin here," referring to a mathematical representation called the Maclaurin series. Coincidentally, McLaurin was Robin Williams' middle name.
The Ontario Specialty Company, at 133 Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, was the setting for Matt Damon and Minnie Driver's date. The real-life manager of the store, Anna Zejn makes an appearance.
Matt Damon was twenty-six when the movie was filmed. His character, Will, was twenty.
After Matt Damon and Ben Affleck removed the N.S.A. stuff from the script, Castle Rock, by that time, owning the rights to the script, gave them time to go out and find somebody who will buy their version of the movie, meaning a director. But there was a price tag: Castle Rock wanted to get their money back. So if they couldn't find anybody to buy it, when it came back to Castle Rock, they were not going to be the stars anymore.
First film in Kevin Smith's and Scott Mosier's filmography to receive Oscar recognition. Though they weren't nominated themselves, they were still instrumental in getting the films production even happening. Kevin Smith was friends with Ben Affleck after his casting in Mallrats (1996), then cast him as the lead in Chasing Amy (1997). Following Matt Damon's cameo role, along with Brian O'Halloran as television producers, was after Affleck introduced the pair, which led to them giving Smith the screenplay, ultimately landing with Harvey Weinstien of Miramax.
The very last line in the credits is "In Memory Of Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs".
In the café scene, where Will announces to Skylar that he was hoping to "get laid", an extra walking past and peering into the window can be identified as Christian Stolte.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Cole Hauser appeared in School Ties (1992).
Robin Williams signing on, definitely was the linchpin for the movie getting made.
This is the first film in which the top billed actor (excluding films in which the cast is billed alphabetically) wins an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Anthony Minghella was offered the role of Henry Lipkin, but was unable to take the role, due to scheduling conflicts.
Ben Affleck's father and stepmother worked as janitors at Harvard University. In 2000, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon spoke at a rally at Harvard University in support of an increased living wage for all workers on campus. Ben Affleck narrates a documentary, Occupation (2002), about a sit-in organized by the Harvard Living Wage Campaign.
When the project was in turnaround at Castle Rock, Ben Affleck showed the script to Kevin Smith while working with him on Chasing Amy (1997), which led to Smith and Scott Mosier coming on board as producers. Chasing Amy (1997) also featured cameos by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon.
In the film, Skylar talks about her father having died years prior. Skylar Satenstein's father, Frank Satenstein, a television director, died in 1982, years before Skylar and Matt Damon were dating at Harvard.
Andrew Scheinman and Michael Mann were considered to direct.
Referenced in 2 Fast 2 Furious by Paul Walker in the freeway race, "How do you like them apples".
Matt Damon and Casey Affleck appeared in the Ocean's trilogy.
Jan Sverák refused to direct it.
Michael Winterbottom was approached to direct, but declined.
Stellan Skarsgård previously appeared in The Hunt for Red October (1990) and the Swedish film Insomnia (1997). Ben Affleck appeared in The Sum of All Fears (2002), while Robin Williams appeared in the English-language remake Insomnia (2002).
The movie was named as one of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time" by Premiere.
Skyler's phone number is 555-1294.
As of 2018, features Minnie Driver's only Oscar nominated performance.
Spoilers
Robin Williams' last line in the film, "Son of a bitch. He stole my line." was ad-libbed.
In the hypnotherapy scene Will sings "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band, also sung randomly in Anchorman (2004) by Will Ferrel and cast.
In the hypnotherapy scene Will sings "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band, also sung randomly in Anchorman (2004) by Will Ferrel and cast.
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