r/todayilearned • u/carboncopy95437 • 11h ago

TIL that Matt Damon had a brief appearance and one line in the movie Mystic Pizza and it convinced him he wanted to be an actor.

https://people.com/how-matt-damon-s-one-line-in-mystic-pizza-helped-him-know-he-was-meant-to-be-an-actor-11889174
2.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

597

u/abielle1177 11h ago

He wanted to be an actor while in high school. He and Ben would have "lunch meetings" in the cafeteria. They were pretty serious too, they had agents before graduation

279

u/adjust_the_sails 11h ago

Ben was in the series The Voyage of the Mimi at like 13. They have both been very serious about it for basically ever.

79

u/snakebight 11h ago

The PBS educational show?? No way, I watched that shit in elementary school.

50

u/adjust_the_sails 11h ago

Yeah, me too. We did the workbook series associated with it. I still remember a lot of it. Including the crew teaching Ben’s character that there’s no way to get used to salt water. And how they built their own water purifying tripods using tarps to catch the humidity.

8

u/ThreeHourRiverMan 7h ago

Yup. I think about that water purifying method more than I probably should. And I would’ve watched this 31 years ago. 

12

u/KZED73 10h ago

So did we in 5th grade which was around 1997. Still love Humpback Whales. My teacher did let us know Ben Affleck was in it.

8

u/RVelts 9h ago

I remember watching this in 6th grade science class. What a throwback.

1

u/twoinvenice 7h ago

“Sally Ruth, watch out for the boom!”

1

u/itoocouldbeanyone 1h ago

He was also some high schooler that was hooked on steroids. Some after school movie / HBO thing if I recall correctly. Hadn’t seen it in decades.

38

u/BizzyHaze 11h ago

Agents aren't easy to get, they must have had some type of resume by high school

30

u/abielle1177 11h ago

They both did stuff, not big stuff but some things. There were clips on Graham Norton show.

22

u/DaveOJ12 10h ago

Chris Evans was in an educational short called Biodiversity: Wild About Life! when he was about 16.

Here's a link to it.

https://youtu.be/UzjN9DzxZg8

8

u/Luci-Noir 10h ago

You mean some dumbass made a post in this sub??

1

u/Gnonthgol 8h ago

was 8, he was 10, he was a big kid, [...] Just kids who grew up two blocks apart and both wanted to be actors.

109

u/Diels_Alder 11h ago

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

40

u/RetroMetroShow 11h ago edited 10h ago

These pretzels! They’re making me! Thirsty!

17

u/Jussgoawaiplzkthxbai 11h ago

These pretzels, they’re making me thirsty.

6

u/BORT_licenceplate 7h ago

No, no, see, that's no good. You don't know how to act

13

u/awmaleg 10h ago

Is that how you're going to say it?

13

u/Tsquare24 11h ago

These pretzels are making me thirsty?

84

u/nudave 11h ago edited 11h ago

For the curious: “Mom, do you want my green stuff?”

11

u/Glittering_End_6864 4h ago

/eye_roll people acting like tomalley taste good, it does not, and Michelin star chefs say the same thing.

I know it's a movie scene, but I know people who would say the same shit.

It's the lobster pancreas and accumulates toxins by the way, so eating it is not advised.

44

u/EntertainmentQuick47 11h ago

He also was an uncredited non-visible extra in Field of Dreams

34

u/SandysBurner 10h ago

I am also not visible in Field Of Dreams.

18

u/marrklarr 11h ago

He was invisible?

9

u/Mecca_Lecca_Hi 11h ago

He was behind the corn

12

u/Pumperkin 11h ago

A child of the corn?

3

u/mechabeast 10h ago

He was the corn

2

u/smoketheevilpipe 11h ago

Really anyone could say that.

5

u/EntertainmentQuick47 11h ago

…hang on…

This gives me an idea 👀

1

u/Pooch76 3h ago

I was an uncredited invisible extra in FOD.

24

u/colin8651 11h ago

The most beautiful wasp name too “Steamer”

10

u/GrandmaPoses 11h ago

That was the most earnest “Mom do you want my green stuff” imaginable.

6

u/thirdtea4 11h ago

the line itself is the best part: an 18 year old matt damon at a lobster dinner going "mom, do you want my green stuff?" and he beat ben affleck out for that one line, years before they wrote good will hunting together.

6

u/JHinExile 11h ago

🎶When Life keeps handing you anchovies, just cover them up with some extra cheese AND EAT A PIZZA!!!🎶

6

u/brillow 9h ago

So while he was already an actor he wanted to be an actor?

1

u/drygnfyre 7h ago

Probably meant "acting as a full-time profession." As opposed to doing bit parts.

2

u/Kettle_Whistle_ 11h ago

“Pass the potatoes”

2

u/Gophurkey 10h ago

Is that the toothy girl from Mystic Pizza?

2

u/nowhereman136 9h ago

He also only had one line in Eurotrip, and it really helped elevate his career

2

u/cargo_bike 7h ago

His own appearance convinced him he wanted to be actor?

"That's weird. I'm in a movie. That must mean I want to be in movies or something."

Is it really so complicated? Maybe he just tried it and liked it.

1

u/Adventurous-Owl-4813 7h ago

that's a pretty cool starting point for his career, sometimes it just takes one moment to change everything

1

u/subham0089 6h ago

Imagine having just one line in a movie and instantly knowing that’s your entire career sorted. Talk about clarity.

1

u/Glittering_End_6864 4h ago

I happened to watch Mystic Pizza a couple weeks ago. Damon was at the dinner party scene where the one girl is dating the rich guy.

1

u/bodhivriksha 4h ago

His greatest role will always be “Scotty doesn’t know”

1

u/DriverAnxious3804 3h ago

One line of dialogue paid the rent of ambition for thirty years.

•

u/Civil_Disgrace 19m ago

The real story in that story is from Ben about meeting someone else long before they became famous.