Ben Stiller Turned Down Directing “Good Will Hunting”
At the 70th Academy Awards, it could have been Ben Stiller’s name among those listed as the nominees for Best Director. He had been offered the chance to direct 1997’s “Good Will Hunting”. He turned it down and Gus Van Sant who ended up in the director’s chair got an Oscar nomination for the film. It was also nominated for Best Picture and won Academy Awards for Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor) and for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Best Original Screenplay.
It was at the premiere of his new movie “While We’re Young”, where Ben Stiller was asked by Vulture, if there was anything he’d do differently over the course of his career if he could go back and change it? Ben said, “I remember my agent sent me the script for Good Will Hunting to direct,” replied Stiller, “and I was like, ‘Who are these guys, Affleck and Damon? And why are they attached to this project? No, thank you!’ I mean, maybe I’d change that.”
Ben Stiller added that those aren’t the kind of questions he likes to think about. “That’s what every time travel movie you’ve ever seen is based on!” he said. “We start going down that rabbit hole and people say, ‘If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t change anything.’ Now, that’s not how I feel, but I am happy with the choices I’ve made because they’ve gotten me to where I am today and I’ve learned from them.”
Ben Stiller has plenty of career decisions to live with this week with no regrets. His new film, “While We’re Young“, co-starring Naomi Watts and Adam Driver opens nationwide this Friday, March 27th and the new series he’s producing and appearing in, “Big Time in Hollywood, FL” premieres Thursday at 10:30pm et on Comedy Central.
