Ben Affleck: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Good Will Hunting (1997)

Another instance of Affleck pulling double duty, this time co-writing the screenplay with Matt Damon, and also performing in a supporting role. This role was quite literally custom-built for the actor, an early pre-fame performance that also stands as one of his best, as, like Damon's character, a young guy working a boring, dead-end job in Boston, desperate to break out. Though Affleck's role is the smaller of the two and certainly less flashy, it's a fine supporting part that's steeped well in the friendship between these two troubled young men, and like so many of Affleck's films, has an urgent sense of time and place, specifically Boston. What could have been a relatively one-note, stereotypical character is given life by Affleck, making that whirlwind of emotions - frustration, a little jealously, and ulimately, admiration - feel palpably real. Plus, given his recent successes, hopefully everyone can stop with the jokes that Matt Damon did all the work on the script...