Matt Damon reveals the career setback that led him and Ben Affleck to write Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon is reminiscing about the time he lost out on an exceptionally plum role in Primal Fear to another actor who shot to fame thanks to the part.

As he told Tom Holland on Complex’s GOAT Talk show, the disappointment had its benefits because it spurred him to write the Oscar-winning 1997 film Good Will Hunting with his pal Ben Affleck.

'It was actually a real impetus behind us writing Good Will Hunting,' said Damon, who recently admitted that he had a female stunt double in The Odyssey.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Damon for comment. 

Good Will Hunting followed a self-taught mathematical genius who works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and must confront his emotional trauma through a widowed therapist (Robin Williams) and relationship with a Harvard pre-med student (Minnie Driver).

Good Will Hunting was both a critical and box office success that led Damon, 55, and Affleck, 53, to win Oscars for Best Original Screenplay in 1998. The movie completely changed their careers and made them bankable stars.

Before they struck gold, the childhood friends, who grew up only blocks apart in Cambridge, Massachusetts, both went after the Primal Fear role of Aaron Stampler, a young altar boy accused of murdering a Catholic bishop. 

Edward Norton nabbed the part in the 1996 legal thriller, marking his film debut.

Norton's portrayal of the shy and stuttering 19-year-old boy from Kentucky and cold and aggressive alternate personality Roy was his star-making entry into Hollywood.

'Edward beat out everybody, and as he should have, he was phenomenal in the movie,' Damon said.

'And [Ben and I] looked at each other, and we were like, there’s never gonna be a role that good that comes down into the category of unknown actor, and we all can take a shot at it, but it’s, you know, 10,000 people going for this one thing.

'So we really buckled down and wrote Good Will Hunting a little more desperately.'

Damon added: 'Out of necessity, it’s very, very hard to break in, as you know. The hardest jobs to get are the first ones you get.'

Meanwhile, The Odyssey star recently revealed he is 'all in' for a new Jason Bourne movie.

Damon has starred as the amnesiac CIA assassin in four movies from the Bourne action-thriller franchise and is hoping to reprise the role in a new film from director and writer Edward Berger.

Revealing that he and Berger have been discussing the movie, Damon told The Dan Patrick Show: 'It looks really good, and I'm very hopeful that it will happen. If we really feel like we’ve got a shot at doing something great, I'm all in. I love that character. It's been an incredible part of my life. I'd love to do it again.'

Damon first played Bourne in 2002's The Bourne Identity and followed it up with The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007 and Jason Bourne in 2016.

He notably was not involved in 2012's The Bourne Legacy, which starred Jeremy Renner.

'We're always looking to try to get another one of those because we loved it, everyone who worked on them,' Damon told Parade last month. 'So there's always some attempt going on to write, to come up with a new story. So if you have anything, let us know.'