4 Fun Facts You May Not Know About Good Will Hunting

In this ’90s film, Matt Damon stars as a genius math and science whiz with a secret, Ben Affleck plays his therapist, who soon realizes there’s more to this story, and Minnie Driver portrays the girl who makes everything possible. Here are four things about the film that might surprise you:

The script was Damon’s school project

We know that Affleck’s geeky Dr. Sean Maguire writes the script for Good Will Hunting, but the story actually started out as a school project from Damon’s senior year at Harvard University. In a playwriting class, the actor wrote a short story about being an undiscovered math genius. Damon read it aloud to the class, and there were moments of silence where he didn’t know if anyone was even paying attention. But at the end, everyone exploded in applause.

It’s based on a true story

Though the character of Will Hunting is completely made up, the movie draws inspiration from personal accounts. Skylar’s love interest was based on Damon’s own ex-girlfriend. He was not allowed to film her, even though he wrote her into the script. Instead, the actress has come as herself.

The film was mostly shot in Toronto

The film was primarily shot in Toronto, with only three days in Boston and two in Massachusetts. The director wanted to promote the city’s film industry. Amusingly, the producers hated Massachusetts as it was unusually cold.

The weather had an influence

The director had planned on shooting the film between September and October. However, when it came time to shoot, they were experiencing one of the coldest summers ever recorded for Toronto (and probably Canada). It was essential to the director that this odd weather would create a consistent mood throughout the movie.