“I Do Remember Them”: Kevin Costner Recalls Meeting Matt Damon & Ben Affleck As Extras 36 Years Ago

Summary Kevin Costner recalls meeting Damon and Affleck as excited young extras on the set of Field of Dreams.

The duo's synergy and energy stood out to Costner, who noted their enthusiasm and mimicked actions.

Affleck and Damon's early friendship and creative partnership blossomed, leading to collaborations like Good Will Hunting.

Kevin Costner recalls meeting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on the set of Field of Dreams. Before they were the A-list superstars they are today, Affleck and Damon were young people who played unnamed extras in a Fenway park scene in Field of Dreams. This Costner-lead drama told the story of a man named Ray Kinsella who makes it his life goal to build a baseball field in his backyard, for the most magical baseball reunion game to ever be played.

Field of Dreams is available to watch on Prime Video.

Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Costner explains his first meeting with Damon and Affleck. The Field of Dreams star describes the pair “sitting in the stands, like college guys,” with an undeniable energy between them.

Their synergy took the form of mimicked actions, such as “lean[ing] in at the same time” and “look[ing] at each other at the same time.” Costner noted the young actors’ grand enthusiasm. Check out the full quote from Costner below:

They were sitting in the stands, like college guys, and they came up, and they both leaned in at the same time, leaned back at the same time, looked at each other at the same time as we talked. And they had this big enthusiasm. They were on fire. I do remember them, absolutely.

Following Costner’s words, host Jimmy Kimmel also read a text from Damon surrounding his Field of Dreams days. Damon wrote:

I remember it well. I literally had an Untouchables poster on my wall. He came out and hung around with the extras between setups. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, ‘Shooting the s---’ and I laughed like a 12-year-old girl. It was a big deal for us, because he had the exact career that we wanted. He was very nice to us.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Long-Term Creative Partnership Explained

Field of Dreams was released in 1989. At the time, Damon would have been 19 years old and Affleck would have only been 17. Baseball and film were supposedly a shared interest for the pair, who met as children when they were only 10 and 8 years old. Thus, Field of Dreams, in many ways, makes perfect sense as an early screen role for the pair, as it relates to the origins of their friendship. Costner’s Field of Dreams reflection is a sweet homage to the pair’s origins as friends.

Damon and Affleck’s youthful friendship soon became an unstoppable creative partnership that would help define both of their careers. Eight years after they were Field of Dreams extras, the young actors would star together in Good Will Hunting, a film that they co-wrote. Good Will Hunting earned the duo an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and is widely recognized as one of the most iconic films of the late 1990s. It is that film that would go on to catapult the careers of both actors, who are now huge stars.

Related The 10 Movies Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Have Made Together Over 35 Years Ben Affleck and Matt Damon share one of Hollywood's most famous bromances. Here are all their film collaborations, chronologically from 1989 to 2023.

Though they went their separate ways in much of their later careers, Affleck and Damon have still found ways to collaborate over the years. Last year, the two co-starred in the Affleck-directed film Air, which covers the true story of Nike’s infamous shoe deal with famed basketball player Michael Jordan. The pair have come a long way since their young friendship and creative partnership, but it is fascinating to know how much their creative spirit was ignited with their simple Field of Dreams roles.

Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live / YouTube