Ben Affleck ROASTS longtime BFF Matt Damon over his burly gray beard
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Ben Affleck and his childhood BFF Matt Damon reunited at Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event in Inglewood, CA last Saturday in order to present the first footage from their upcoming film The Rip.
'I trusted Matt would shave the beard before Tudum,' 52-year-old Ben wisecracked onstage The Kia Forum. 'And here we are.'
54-year-old Matt grew out the burly gray beard for his role as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, in Christopher Nolan's big-screen adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey.
Damon and Affleck then introduced the roaring crowd to their Rip castmates Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
The Artists Equity co-founders - who are 10th cousins once removed - originally met as neighbors in Cambridge, MA before co-writing their Oscar-winning screenplay for Gus Van Sant's 1997 drama Good Will Hunting.
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Matt flexed his biceps in a white short-sleeve button-up and grey jeans while Ben rocked a black leather motorcycle jacket with blue jeans.
Affleck and Damon portray Miami cops whose team's trust begins to fray upon discovering millions in cash in a derelict stash house in Joe Carnahan's crime drama premiering January 16 on Netflix.
'The Rip came out of a deeply personal experience that my friend went through, both as a father and as head of tactical narcotics for the Miami Dade police department,' Carnahan told Tudum last Saturday.
'It's inspired in part by his life and then, by my enduring love for those classic seventies cop thrillers that really valued the character and interpersonal relationships and became touchstones of that era — films like Serpico and Prince of the City and more recently, Michael Mann's Heat.'
Sasha Calle, NĂ©stor Carbonell, Lina Esco, Scott Adkins, and Kyle Chandler will also appear in The Rip.
The Boston besties co-produced Bill Condon's $30M-budget remake of West End musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring Ben's second ex-wife Jennifer Lopez, which hits US theaters October 10.
Matt is currently on break from filming Universal Pictures $250M-budget 'mythic action epic' already scheduled to hit theaters on July 17, 2026.
The Odyssey marks Damon's third time being directed by Nolan after his 2023 atomic bomb biopic Oppenheimer, and his 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar.
Principal photography officially began February 25 on the IMAX flick, and filming is also expected to take place in Italy, Greece, Morocco, Scotland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
The Odyssey ensemble cast also includes Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Will Yun Lee, and Mia Goth.
Meanwhile, Affleck has been hard at work on the LA set of his sixth feature directorial effort Animals, which will also be released via Netflix.
The Accountant 2 action star co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred as LA Mayoral candidate Milo Bradford in the upcoming hostage thriller.
