Matt Damon is sharing a side of Ben Affleck that Hollywood rarely talks about. The 56-year-old actor said his longtime friend and business partner has passed on major acting jobs so he can stay close to his three children in Los Angeles. Damon made the comments in GQ’s 2026 Men of the Year cover interview, published on Thursday, November 5, 2026.
The two men have been friends for nearly five decades. They grew up together in Massachusetts, won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting in 1997, and now run the production company Artists Equity. Damon’s comments put a spotlight on how both stars have reshaped their careers around fatherhood.
What Matt Damon Said About Ben Affleck’s Choices
Damon told GQ that Affleck, 54, has made family time a clear priority. “He’s turned down a lot of work. And in fact, he really wanted to take on the CEO role at Artists Equity because it would keep him home,” Damon said.
Damon explained that Affleck’s decision is tied to his custody arrangement with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, 54. The former couple share three children: Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14. Affleck and Garner filed for divorce in April 2017, and the split was finalized in October 2018. They share joint custody.
“He said to me when we started the company—he’s got joint custody, which means he gets to be with the kids half the time. And he said, ‘If I go to Estonia and do a movie, it’s not like I get that time back.’ So that for him means he’s got to stay in L.A.”
— Matt Damon to GQ
The comment is direct and practical. Affleck is not just saying no to work for the sake of saying no. He is saying no because half his time with his children is fixed by a custody schedule, and a long shoot in another country would cut into that window.
Why Ben Affleck Wants to Stay in Los Angeles
Affleck has spoken about this himself. In an October 2026 interview with GQ, he said that after his 2018 divorce from Garner, he “no longer had any interest” in traveling across the country or the world to shoot a film and “miss out on this period of time in the life of my children.”
“I wanted to self-consciously construct a life, a daily routine and a life that was here, where my kids go to school and get picked up from school and go see their friends and go to the things they do after school and all that stuff and just be around.”
— Ben Affleck to GQ, October 2026
Affleck made similar comments to Variety in October 2026. He said he does not want to miss the years his children are still at home. “I’m divorced, I have shared custody, and I don’t want to miss these years,” he told the outlet. “My kids are here, and their life is flying by. I don’t want to have to be in Shreveport or New Mexico in order to work.”
The Argo star also said he knows not every actor has the same freedom to choose where they work. He called himself “fortunate” and added that Los Angeles has “the best crews.”
The Artists Equity Factor
Artists Equity is not a side note in this story. It is the structure that makes Affleck’s choice possible. Affleck and Damon founded the company in November 2022 with backing from RedBird Capital and its founder Gerry Cardinale. Affleck serves as CEO, and Damon is Chief Content Officer. Damon’s wife, Luciana Barroso, is also a partner in the company.
The company’s first film was Air in 2023, a sports drama directed by Affleck and starring both men. Other projects include Small Things Like These, The Instigators, The Accountant 2, Unstoppable, and The Rip, the Netflix thriller that brought Damon and Affleck back together on screen in January 2026.
In October 2026, Artists Equity launched Artists Equity Independent Pictures, a new banner focused on emerging filmmakers. The first projects include A Woman in the Sun, the directorial debut of Nyad screenwriter Julia Cox, with Renée Zellweger, Sissy Spacek, and Mia Threapleton attached. Another project is Downriver, from director Sam Jones and writer Carl Hiaasen.
Affleck also directed and stars in Animals, a kidnapping thriller that began streaming on Netflix on October 9, 2026. The film was originally set to star Damon, but Damon had to step away because of his schedule for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Affleck took on the lead role himself, opposite Kerry Washington.
The CEO role gives Affleck something that a movie set often cannot: a daily routine in the same city where his children go to school. He is not required to move to another state or country for months at a time to keep working.
Ben Affleck’s Own Words on Fatherhood
Affleck has been unusually open about parenting in the past year. In October 2026, he told People that his three children keep him humble. “I give advice and try to talk to them, parent them as you do,” he said. “What I found is that now it’s not only one teenager rolling their eyes, I’ll kind of launch into something at the dinner table and I’ll catch them giving each other looks, and I realize I’m the caricature in this story.”
He also told People that he and Garner have a week-on, week-off custody schedule. “I work hard, and then I go home and pick up the kids from school. We have dinner if they agree to hang out with me. They’re with me for a week, then with their mom for a week,” he said. “They have a great thing with their mom, for whom I’m also really, really grateful.”
That schedule explains why a long overseas shoot is not a simple logistical choice for Affleck. A film that shoots for three or four months in another country can wipe out multiple custody blocks. Turning down those jobs is not a sacrifice he talks about often, but it is a pattern Damon has watched up close.
Matt Damon’s Two-Week Rule
Damon has his own system for balancing work and family. He and Luciana Barroso have what they call a “two-week rule.” Damon tries not to be away from home for work for longer than two weeks at a time.
“We have a two-week rule. I’m not away for more than two weeks. I think you need to be with the person you love as much as possible. My wife is my soulmate.”
— Matt Damon, previously shared in an interview
Damon broke that rule for The Odyssey. The Christopher Nolan film, which stars Damon as Odysseus, required longer stretches away from home. Damon told TODAY on July 14, 2026, that he was away for three and a half weeks at one point. “It just took more, and it took more out of our family, and they had to, you know, we’ve always had a two-week rule. This was the first time that we ever had to violate it,” he said.
“It was hard on us, and I’m so proud of the movie, but I’m so proud of them for really encouraging me.”
— Matt Damon on TODAY, July 14, 2026
The Odyssey was released on July 17, 2026, and became a massive box-office success. It crossed $1 billion worldwide within weeks and went on to earn more than $1.5 billion globally, becoming the highest-grossing film of Nolan’s career. Damon has called it the biggest year of his career.
Damon shares four daughters with Barroso: Alexia, 27, Isabella, 20, Gia, 18, and Stella, 16. He has spoken in recent months about how fast they are growing up and how he and Affleck are entering a similar phase of life.
A Friendship That Grew Into Family
Damon and Affleck met as children in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have worked together on and off for more than 45 years. Their friendship has survived the ups and downs of Hollywood, marriages, divorces, and very different career paths.
In a July 2026 interview with People, Damon said he and Affleck get “emotional” when they talk about their children growing up. “We’re at very similar stages with the kids, and it’s definitely a new phase of life,” he said. “It doesn’t take much to get us emotional at this point.”
Damon also told People that he and Affleck are at a point where they want to keep making films together for as long as they can. “I just want to make good stuff and definitely keep working with Ben, because we’re at that point in our life where we’re like, ‘F— it, why not?’ This was our dream as kids, as boys. We got to honor those boys and keep working together if we can,” he told ExtraTV in November 2026.
The two men are also pursuing projects they first talked about decades ago. Damon said in the GQ interview that he does not expect another career-defining moment like Good Will Hunting, but he still hopes to keep working with Affleck. He also said he would be happy if Quentin Tarantino wrote a film for the two of them. “He should write us a movie,” Damon said. “We would be very happy if he did that.”
What This Says About Work and Family in Hollywood
Damon’s comments about Affleck are not a dramatic reveal. They are a plain description of how two successful actors have adjusted their careers around their children. Affleck has the money and the industry position to say no to jobs that would take him away from Los Angeles. Not every actor does.
The choice also has a business side. Artists Equity is built around keeping production close to home for its founders. Affleck’s role as CEO is not just a title. It is a way for him to stay in the city where his children live while still running a company that makes films.
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Damon’s two-week rule is a different version of the same idea. He takes red-eye flights on weekends to get home when he is shooting out of town. He told The Guardian in 2012 that the rule means the family is never apart for long, and he has tried to keep it in place ever since.
Both men have spoken about how quickly their children are growing up. Both have said they want to be present for the years they have left at home. Damon’s GQ comment about Affleck adds a new detail to that picture: Affleck is not just talking about being present. He is turning down work to make it happen.
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