Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Appear in Kevin Smith Movies As Payback for Forgetting Him in Their Oscar Speech
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, two of a generation’s most decorated filmmakers, have appeared in an inexplicable number of Kevin Smith films. Both have acted in Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot — none of which are likely to show up in their Oscar retrospectives. (You can add Mallrats and Clerks III to Affleck’s IMDb.) Why do they keep popping up in Smith’s comedies — including possible roles in his could-be-maybe-it’s-happening Dogma 2?
It’s all thanks to the advice Smith gave the duo when they wrote their Oscar-winning screenplay, Good Will Hunting. Affleck and Damon took Smith’s advice and improved their script — then completely forgot to thank him when they accepted their Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. “I have been able to hold that over both their heads for 25 fucking years, which is why they keep showing up in all the movies,” Smith said Sunday at Vulture Festival, per Deadline. “Expect a cameo from them — more than a fucking cameo. The only way we get a Dogma sequel made is if they’re there. So count on those guys being there.”
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Okay then! Smith has been eating out on the Affleck/Damon credit card for more than 25 years, thanks to that awards speech oversight in 1998. He’s about to ring up more charges with Dogma 2, he told the crowd this weekend. “Some people will be like, ‘Don’t fucking touch it. You’ll ruin it. And I’m here to tell you: I will. I’m fucking tickled. I found a way in.”
Smith teased the return of Loki and Bartleby, the fallen angels played by Damon and Affleck in the original. In the first movie, they try to exploit a loophole in Catholic dogma to finagle a return ticket to Heaven (and undo all creation). Unsurprisingly, Catholics had a problem with Dogma — their protests might have helped the film become Smith’s most profitable up to that point.
The original Dogma has been in its own kind of Miramax purgatory for years, unavailable on streaming or home video. Another company recently bought the rights, to Smith’s delight. “They were like, ‘Would you be interested in re-releasing it and touring it like you do with your movies?’ I said, ‘One hundred percent, are you kidding me? Touring a movie that I know people like, and it’s sentimental and nostalgic? We’ll clean up,” he gushed.
Dogma 2 might just be the beginning. Smith is imagining all kinds of “sequels, TV versions, in terms of extending the story. Something we could never do before. So, exciting man.”
Matt and Ben, you’ve been warned.
