Cambridge cutie turned Hollywood heavy Matt Damon said he wasn’t surprised to
learn that he and BFF Ben Affleck actually are related. They felt like bros from way
back!
“I always felt like we were kin. He always felt like kin,” Damon told the Track after a
screening in the Apple of his latest project, the History Channel documentary “The
People Speak.”
As you may know, the New England Genealogical Society announced a few weeks back
that they had done a study of the Damon and Affleck family trees and discovered that
Matt and Ben are 10th cousins once removed. The Tinseltown titans have a common
ancestor - a 10th great-grandfather, William Knowlton of Ipswich, a bricklayer who
died in 1655. “I remember when I got that story on my phone, I e-mailed it to him
and at the same time he was e-mailing it to me,” Damon laughed. “And then, it turns
out, Ben is even related to Barack Obama!”
Affleck, the genealogical society determined, is an 11th cousin to Obama via the
Hinckley family of Cape Cod. Jealous much, Matt?
Well, as it turns out, Matt is jealous of Ben, but not because of his ties to the Leader
of the Free World. Matt, who is currently filming “The Adjustment Bureau,” in NYC with
Emily Blunt, wishes he could work in Boston again.
Affleck has just made two back-to-back flicks in Boston: “The Company Men” with
Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones and “The Town” with Jon Hamm and Blake Lively,
which he is directing and taking the lead role.
“I’m very jealous and I’m planning my countermeasures as we speak,” Damon declared.
Matt, one of the top leading men in Hollywood, said he’d love to try his hand at
directing after seeing Ben’s success with two terrific stories - “The Town” and made-in-
Boston “Gone Baby Gone.”
“I hope I’d be good at it,” he said, adding that the Massachusetts tax incentives that
have lured lots of big-budget flicks to the Bay State will help make his
countermeasures a reality.
“I was beside myself when we were making ‘The Departed’ that we had to shoot most
of it in New York because it was actually cheaper to film here than Boston before the
incentives came in,” he said. “Now that they have them, all the work’s in Boston. You
ask the Teamsters in New York and that’s what they tell you, everything’s happening
in Boston.”
Damon said he believes the sometimes-controversial incentives are a no-brainer for
the state. “The movie business is a light-footprint industry,” he said. “It doesn’t
pollute. We don’t knock down trees. We just turn on our cameras and leave behind
piles of cash.”
learn that he and BFF Ben Affleck actually are related. They felt like bros from way
back!
“I always felt like we were kin. He always felt like kin,” Damon told the Track after a
screening in the Apple of his latest project, the History Channel documentary “The
People Speak.”
As you may know, the New England Genealogical Society announced a few weeks back
that they had done a study of the Damon and Affleck family trees and discovered that
Matt and Ben are 10th cousins once removed. The Tinseltown titans have a common
ancestor - a 10th great-grandfather, William Knowlton of Ipswich, a bricklayer who
died in 1655. “I remember when I got that story on my phone, I e-mailed it to him
and at the same time he was e-mailing it to me,” Damon laughed. “And then, it turns
out, Ben is even related to Barack Obama!”
Affleck, the genealogical society determined, is an 11th cousin to Obama via the
Hinckley family of Cape Cod. Jealous much, Matt?
Well, as it turns out, Matt is jealous of Ben, but not because of his ties to the Leader
of the Free World. Matt, who is currently filming “The Adjustment Bureau,” in NYC with
Emily Blunt, wishes he could work in Boston again.
Affleck has just made two back-to-back flicks in Boston: “The Company Men” with
Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones and “The Town” with Jon Hamm and Blake Lively,
which he is directing and taking the lead role.
“I’m very jealous and I’m planning my countermeasures as we speak,” Damon declared.
Matt, one of the top leading men in Hollywood, said he’d love to try his hand at
directing after seeing Ben’s success with two terrific stories - “The Town” and made-in-
Boston “Gone Baby Gone.”
“I hope I’d be good at it,” he said, adding that the Massachusetts tax incentives that
have lured lots of big-budget flicks to the Bay State will help make his
countermeasures a reality.
“I was beside myself when we were making ‘The Departed’ that we had to shoot most
of it in New York because it was actually cheaper to film here than Boston before the
incentives came in,” he said. “Now that they have them, all the work’s in Boston. You
ask the Teamsters in New York and that’s what they tell you, everything’s happening
in Boston.”
Damon said he believes the sometimes-controversial incentives are a no-brainer for
the state. “The movie business is a light-footprint industry,” he said. “It doesn’t
pollute. We don’t knock down trees. We just turn on our cameras and leave behind
piles of cash.”
 |  |  |
Kin you feel the love?
Matt Damon & Ben Affleck do!
by Roland Hansen
Matt Damon & Ben Affleck do!
by Roland Hansen
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