Ben Affleck, Matt Damon on ‘surreal experience’ of bringing their moms as dates to Oscars

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon recalled taking their mothers as their dates to Academy Awards in 1998 after bagging Best Original Screenplay nod for Good Will Hunting.

The actors, who have been friends since childhood, recounted the “surreal experience” of attending the prestigious awards ceremony alongside their respective mothers.

"It was a very surreal experience to go because the year before, we were shooting 'Good Will Hunting,'" the Jason Bourne star told Vanity Fair in a joint video interview with Affleck.

Damon, who was also nominated in the category of Best Actor, continued, "To go from that experience where, you know, we filled out the (Oscar ballot) sheets and we were betting on who was gonna win, to being in the front row of the Oscars together with our moms — in one year— it felt like warp speed.”

"And to have Billy Crystal singing a song about us," Damon said before the Gone Girl star reflected on how they both knew that they would be taking their mothers to the ceremony.

“We were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms,” said Affleck. “And I remember, how everyone had made such a big thing out of it. As if this was such a novelty.”

“And I remember thinking, being insecure, like, ‘Why? Why is it weird that we’re bringing our moms? Like, ‘Who else do you think we would bring?’ You know what I mean?

“There was nobody else that was going to go. That was it. Of course our moms were gonna go. That was, really was innocent and not faked,” Affleck added.

Damon and Affleck went on win their first ever Oscar for writing the screenplay of 1997 psychological drama film together.