{"id":389753,"date":"2026-04-21T02:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389753\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:43:09","slug":"ben-affleck-and-matt-damon-to-receive-award-in-honor-of-robin-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389753\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to Receive Award in Honor of Robin Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBen Affleck<\/a> and Matt Damon<\/a> have won awards separately and together \u2014 most notably an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and they will reunite to pick up another honor next week in honor of Robin Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair starred opposite the late legend in Gus Van Sant\u2019s 1997 film, which also earned Williams an Academy Award for best supporting actor. And they will be making the trek up to San Francisco to receive the 9th Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award presented to them by Glenn Close<\/a>\u2018s nonprofit, Bring Change to Mind, at the organization\u2019s Revels & Revelations Celebration. The fundraiser is set to take place at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on April 27.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMatt Damon and Ben Affleck pose with Robin Williams and their respective Oscars won for \u2018Good Will Hunting\u2019 at the 70th Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 23, 1998.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo credit should read HAL GARB\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\n\tSetting the stage for a special night, Affleck and Damon will be presented with their Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award by Robin\u2019s children, Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams. It\u2019s an honor designed to recognize \u201ctheir impact and the power of storytelling and connection to spark real change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAffleck and Damon also released a joint statement to The Hollywood Reporter about the news and their friend. \u201cRobin wasn\u2019t just someone we admired. He made our dreams come true. We owe everything to him. He said yes to our movie and we got it made. Receiving the Legacy of Laughter Award, created in honor of Robin Williams, is incredibly meaningful to us. His legacy isn\u2019t just about his talent and how much he made the world laugh \u2014 it\u2019s about how deeply he cared. This honor carries his spirit, and that means everything to us,\u201d the duo said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event, a milestone moment for Bring Change to Mind as it celebrates 15 years of impact and a decade steering student programming, will also fete philanthropist Pam Baer with a Champion of Change Award to acknowledge her leadership in advancing mental health awareness. The event, supported by lead sponsor American Eagle Foundation, is also supported by individual, foundation and corporate donations. Per official details, it\u2019s already sold out. <\/p>\n

\n\tFounded by Close in 2010, BC2M is a national organization dedicated to ending the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness by working with leading scientists to make a difference in the lives of teens and adults. The cause is personal for Close as her sister, Jessie, lives with bipolar disorder and her nephew, Calen, lives with schizoaffective disorder. The Revels & Revelations Celebration was mounted as a \u201cpowerful night of storytelling, celebration and impact\u201d by bringing together advocates, partners and community members under a shared mission of making sure that every young person feels \u201cseen, supported and empowered\u201d to talk openly about mental health.<\/p>\n

\n\tWilliams died by suicide at age 63 on Aug. 11, 2014. His work with the pair on Good Will Hunting left a lasting impact. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was the very first day of shooting and Ben and I went to the set. We weren\u2019t working that day and we just saw them rehearse and we were kind of sitting off to the side of the camera,\u201d Damon previously told E! \u201cBy the time they said, \u2018Action,\u2019 tears were just falling down my face. I couldn\u2019t believe it. I was just looking at Robin start to speak and say these words that Ben and I had just worked on for five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cAfter the scene ended, [Robin] came over to us and he saw us. He put his hand on our head and just said, you know, \u2018It\u2019s not a fluke. You guys really did this. You really did it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter his passing, they both offered tributes. \u201cThanks chief \u2014 for your friendship and for what you gave the world,\u201d Affleck shared on social media at the time. \u201cRobin brought so much joy into my life and I will carry that joy with me forever,\u201d Damon said in a statement. \u201cHe was such a beautiful man. I was lucky to know him and I will never, ever forget him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior recipients of the Robin Williams Legacy of Laughter Award include Amy Poehler and Ryan Reynolds. Affleck and Damon most recently teamed on The Rip for Netflix. Damon next toplines Christopher Nolan\u2019s star-packed The Odyssey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have won awards separately and together \u2014 most notably an Oscar for writing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9896,430,156,8719,201667,15660,111,139,69,77607],"class_list":{"0":"post-389753","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-glenn-close","12":"tag-good-will-hunting","13":"tag-matt-damon","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-robin-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}