Early Hollywood success once felt like a lifetime guarantee \u2014 until a $600,000 payday ran straight into taxes and fees.<\/p>\n
Actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck recently said on<\/a> “The Howard Stern Show” that he and longtime friend and actor-screenwriter Matt Damon<\/a> briefly believed they were set for life after selling the “Good Will Hunting” screenplay. Recalling that first sizable payday, Affleck said, “I thought it was going to be set for life.”<\/p>\n “Well, it turns out, Howard, you have to pay these things called taxes,” the Oscar-winning actor said. “We were like, \u2018We understand this guy gets half \u2014 but who else gets half? What’s happening?'”<\/p>\n Don’t Miss:<\/p>\n When \u2018Set For Life’ Meets Reality<\/p>\n Affleck and Damon met while growing up outside Boston and pursued acting careers<\/a> together in their 20s. Their career breakthrough came later when the film was released in 1997 and earned<\/a> them an Oscar for best original screenplay.<\/p>\n Affleck said <\/a>on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in 2023 that he and Damon shared a joint bank account at the time. After splitting the payment evenly and paying agent fees and covering about $150,000 in taxes<\/a>, he said they were left with about $110,000 each.<\/p>\n “We each bought $55,000 Jeep Cherokees,” Affleck said. “And then had $55,000 left, which naturally, we decided to rent a $5,000-a-month party house on Glencoe Way up by the Hollywood Bowl \u2014 and we were broke in six months.”<\/p>\n Trending: Americans With a Financial Plan Can 4X Their Wealth \u2014 Get Your Personalized Plan from a CFP Pro<\/a><\/p>\n Affleck later told Howard Stern how the money was divided. “It was like having an ex-wife right away \u2014 you just divide, divide, divide,” he said. “And that joke is in no way meant to reflect on anyone.”<\/p>\n Keeping The Bond<\/p>\n The pair are currently promoting “The Rip,” a crime action thriller that has become a major streaming success since its recent release on Netflix (NASDAQ:<\/a>NFLX<\/a>). The film drew<\/a> 41.6 million views in its first weekend and reached the top spot on the platform’s global charts.<\/p>\n “I think we’re lucky, actually, to not have a friendship that’s really rooted in rivalry,” Affleck said in a recent video shared <\/a>by Netflix.<\/p>\n Read Next:\u00a0<\/p>\n Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge’s one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights<\/a> that can set you ahead in today’s competitive market.<\/p>\n Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga:<\/p>\n This article ‘I Thought It Was Going To Be Set For Life,’ Ben Affleck Says After A $600K Payday \u2014 Until Taxes Felt ‘Like Having An Ex-Wife Right Away’<\/a> originally appeared on Benzinga.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early Hollywood success once felt like a lifetime guarantee \u2014 until a $600,000 payday ran straight into taxes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[8128,458,146,26818,85,46,71561],"class_list":{"0":"post-263257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ben-affleck","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-howard-stern","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-matt-damon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}