Matt Damon's Good Will Hunting Featured A Cameo From A Controversial Director

Early in Gun Van Sant's 1997 Oscar-winning film "Good Will Hunting," Will (Matt Damon) finds himself in prison, having violated his parole after a gang fight. The fight got a little out of hand when Will punched a cop, you see. Despite the desperate situation, the generally positive Will calls Skylar (Minnie Driver) from the prison payphone, hoping to catch up with her after their brief previous encounter at a bar. Skylar is still charmed by Will, but she doesn't realize where he is. She's also about to graduate from Harvard and hopes to attend medical school. Meanwhile, Will is a remarkable math-whiz who has constantly sabotaged his shot at an intellectual career with his temper and his tendency to get in trouble with the law.

While Will is phoning Skylar, another prisoner is pulled through a door and dragged down the hallway behind him. The prisoner seems a little zonked out and begins yelling strange, flirty things at Will. He offers Will sexual favors. There is something smeared on his eyebrows. Will — again, very positive — smiles at the prisoner, recognizing him as Jerve, someone he knew from juvenile hall back in the day. Jerve is then dragged off camera and Will, still determined, continues his flirtation with Skyler (who is clearly interested).

The prisoner, as some indie film enthusiasts might be aware, was none other than Harmony Korine. When "Good Will Hunting" was released, Korine was best known as the young writer of Larry Clark's shocking 1995 J.D. film "Kids." That movie was notorious for its frank depictions of teenage sexuality and the amorality of the characters. Korine's feature directorial debut, "Gummo," was then released in theaters less than two months before "Good Will Hunting," and it similarly shocked audiences with its frank depictions of poverty, aggression, and sex. Korine has only continued to be deliberately off-putting and artistically aggressive in his career since then, directing films like "Julien Donkey-Boy," "Trash Humpers," and "Spring Breakers."

Yeah, that was him in prison.

Korine has long remained an enfant terrible of the indie film world, often intentionally trying to anger or outrage audiences. This is the man who once made a 40-minute short called "The Diary of Anne Frank, Part II," which featured Satanist characters vomiting on a Bible and a character in blackface. His confrontational style was exhilarating for audience members who, back in the 1990s, felt it was high time to stop being polite and start getting real. "Kids" is divisive to this day, and it's certainly not recommended for anyone under the age of 18 (or 38, for that matter).

Van Sant, who had already exploded onto the early 1990s indie scene with films like "Drugstore Cowboy" and "My Own Private Idaho," was only starting to achieve mainstream fame in 1995 thanks to the release of his Nicole Kidman-starring film "To Die For." He was already helping out other notable rising indie stars as well, having served as an executive producer on "Kids." Evidently, Van Sant and the young Korine became friends after that. Van Sant didn't produce Korine's "Gummo," but he did sing its praises when it debuted at Telluride in August 1997. The two filmmakers always flew in the same flocks, so it's not entirely illogical for Van Sant to have offered Korine a cameo in "Good Will Hunting." Van Sant's movie is as gentle and smart as "Gummo" was aggressive and slovenly, but the two artists still saw eye-to-eye.

Indeed, Korine would make another cameo — playing "Guy in Club" — in Van Sant's headier, more experimental Kurt Cobain faux-biopic "Last Days" in 2005. Van Sant hasn't made a cameo in any of Korine's movies yet, but both filmmakers are still active, and the possibility remains palpable.