Matt Damon reveals close pal Ben Affleck ‘turned down a lot of work’ to spend time with his children
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Matt Damon has disclosed one very considerate side of his close friend and collaborator Ben Affleck.
The 56-year-old shared that Affleck always prioritizes his children over his work. ‘The Accountant’ star is the father of three children — Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 14 — whom he shares with his former wife Jennifer Garner.
Matt Damon says Ben Affleck said no to a lot of work because of his children
Damon told GQ for the magazine’s 2026 Men of the Year issue, “He’s turned down a lot of work. And in fact, he really wanted to take on the CEO role at [Damon and Affleck’s production company] Artists Equity because it would keep him home. So when he directs—for instance, 'Animals', that was all shot in LA.”
Damon further shared, “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 LA.”
Matt Damon reveals his rule to spend time with his family
Damon also reflected on his own family life and how he manages to spend time with his daughters — Alexia, 27, Isabella, 20, Gia, 18, and Stella, 16.
He revealed that he follows a “two-week rule” where he tries not to be away from home for over two weeks. But for ‘The Odyssey’ he was out for longer.
“This was the biggest one that we’ve ever done, and we’ve always had a two-week rule. I think the first stretch [on The Odyssey], I was away for three and a half weeks. The first half of the movie was the hardest because the kids were still in school,” he told the publication.
Damon added, “And then once the summer hit, they could come to set, and we could be together. But that first stretch—luckily they’re huge Chris Nolan fans, and they knew that it was this incredible role, so they were really supportive, and it was a sacrifice for them, and they were awesome about it.”
Ben Affleck said he 'wanted to self-consciously construct a life' around his children
This came after Affleck himself talked about fatherhood in an interview with GQ last month.
He said that following his 2018 divorce from Garner, he had no interest in working across the world that would cost him missing “out on this period of time in the life of my children where both I get the most benefit of my life from being present and where there’s reasonable evidence that suggests that you want to be present during your children’s development and life. And being absent for long periods of time, it just was no longer something I wanted to do.”
“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,” the filmmaker added.
