Ben Affleck And Matt Damon Briefly Worked With Kevin Costner On A Classic Sports Movie

Phil Alden Robinson's 1989 sports drama "Field of Dreams" is Americana at its corniest. In many ways, literally; the main character, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), bulldozes a large portion of his corn farm in order to build a brand-new baseball diamond. Ray did so at the behest of a ghostly voice that instructed him, "If you build it, he will come." Sure enough, when he builds the diamond, the ghost of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (Ray Liotta) appears on it, still wearing his Boston Black Sox uniform, and converses with him. 

Ghosts, time travel, and premonitions are a big part of "Field of Dreams," and it's implied that baseball itself is connected to divine powers that are eager to grant related wishes, calm hearts, allow for post-mortem redemption, and provide reconciliation between fathers and sons. Case in point: Ray and his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) have a dream about Fenway Park in Boston, where Ray is attending a game with a man named Terence Mann (James Earl Jones). This inspires Ray to find Mann in real life and go on further wistful, ghostly adventures. 

The scene at Fenway Park was filmed on location, and the stadium was stocked with extras from the Boston area. As it so happens, two young Bostonian showbiz hopefuls showed up to participate, and they both briefly got to interact with Costner during filming. Those two Bostonians were Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, still teenagers at the time. Costner recalled meeting Affleck and Damon in a recent interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," and the actor said the two young whippersnappers were, even in 1989, a delight to interact with.

It seems that teen Affleck and teen Damon were striking performers, even as extras. Costner recalls seeing two very enthused college kids (Affleck was 16 at the time, while Damon was 18) enjoying the game and really getting into their roles as extras. He said: 

"They were sitting in the stands, like college guys. And they would both lean in at the same time, lean back at the same time, look at each other at the same time. And we talked. And they had this big enthusiasm. They were on fire. I do remember them, absolutely." 

Damon and Affleck were already moving into professional acting by the time "Field of Dreams" was released. Damon, a crime movie enthusiast, had already netted a small role in "Mystic Pizza" and served as an extra in "The Good Mother" the year before. Affleck was in "The Dark at the End of the Street" way back in 1981, and had already appeared on the educational TV shows "The Voyage of the Mimi" and "The Second Voyage of the Mimi" in '84 and '87. "Field of Dreams" was still a day gig for them, but they were both clearly on an upward trajectory. 

Kimmel, who has an established comedic relationship with Damon, asked that the actor comment on his extra gig on "Field of Dreams." He recalls it well, and fondly. Damon noted that Costner was a very generous leading man, writing: 

"He came out and hung around with the extras in between setups. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, 'Shootin' the s***.' And I laughed like a 12-year-old girl. It was a big deal for us because he had the exact career that we wanted. He was very nice to us."

It all sounds so pleasant.

Affleck actually saw the above interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," and appeared on the same show a few weeks thereafter to inject some modesty into the conversation. Affleck noted that Costner was likely just being kind when he claimed to remember he and Damon on set. "We were not memorable," Affleck insisted.

"We were, you know, serious actors from a very young age. So we got to know the local casting person in Boston, who would cast when a movie came to town. Like 'Field of Dreams,' you know, they needed extras, and so we would go do extra work, because we wanted to be actors. [...] We went and it was like two days in Fenway Park. We got to be in Fenway Park when it wasn't [in use]. Everything about it felt so big time, and I remember, we thought we knew that actors were kind of fraudulent, and Costner took batting practice, and we were ready to be like, 'Oh, he can't really hit.' And I will say, he banged a bunch of balls off the Green Monster. Hit a ball out of the park."

The Green Monster, for those not familiar with Boston baseball lingo, is the nickname for a giant green wall towering above left field at Fenway Park. Affleck said that, as a teen, looking a huge movie stars like Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones was like "seeing God." He also joked about watching an interview that Damon once gave — many years earlier — wherein he claimed to train at Fenway Park. Affleck suspected Damon was conflating his personal baseball memories with the day they watched Costner hitting balls. 

Damon and Affleck would become Hollywood power players in their own right in 1997 with the release of Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting," which they wrote and starred in, and they've been fixtures in the biz ever since.