Matt Damon praises Ben Affleck’s card skills
Matt Damon has praised Ben Affleck’s card skills.
While Matt, 45, developed his poker playing abilities when he was preparing to star in 1998 movie ‘Rounders’, he admitted he cannot compare to his good friend Ben, 43, who was banned from playing blackjack at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in 2014 after his ability to count cards was discovered.
Matt told PEOPLE: "They keep letting me back in here. I’m not Ben Affleck good. Ben Affleck is not allowed to play, he got banned from all these places, I didn’t.
"I downloaded that card-counting app and then I didn’t do it because Ben can’t play blackjack in Vegas anymore. He’s been disinvited."
Matt’s ‘Jason Bourne’ co-star Alicia Vikander was impressed by his card skills but believes he has an advantage as he has filmed a number of movies in Las Vegas.
She said: "He is a good card player. I guess people kind of already know that. But it’s something when even I knew that, and then got to see it myself.
"It’s only because it’s his fourth film set in Vegas, no other reason. He’s been kind of forced."
Matt and Ben shot to fame with their 1997 movie ‘Good Will Hunting’, and Matt recently revealed he would love to work with his friend again, but only if Ben stayed behind the camera.
He said: "I would love to write another script with Ben; I love Ben, I love his work, he’s been my buddy for 35 years. The big issue is time for us. We have a company together so we work on a lot of projects together, but to try to carve out the time is really tough.
"I mean we both have a whole mess of kids now, and these other day jobs.
"He’s directing all the time and I’m off working with these other directors. The thing about ‘Good Will Hunting’ is that we were unemployed and we weren’t writing the script on a deadline either. Nobody was expecting it, so we were just these two idiots in our basement writing this thing, and now we have all of these pressures of the lives grown-ups have.
"So I would never say never because I would absolutely love to write with Ben again, and I’d love to collaborate with him on anything, he’s brilliant. I’d love to be in one of his movies that he directs.
"The problem there is that he just keeps giving himself the best roles, so until he stops doing that and maybe just directs, none of us can really work with him."
