--- title: Matt Damon Says Sylvester Stallone Inspired His Early Career description: The 'Rocky' star inspired Damon to fight for a role in his movie 'Good Will Hunting' when studios wanted to cast someone else canonical: https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-06T13:12:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:49:09.152Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Matt Damon Credits Sylvester Stallone With Early Career Inspiration og:description: The 'Rocky' star inspired him to fight for a role in 'Good Will Hunting' og:url: https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc52101a4caffc4/698877c45f570f49f3b1f0ea/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala - Awards Presentation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matt Damon Credits Sylvester Stallone With Early Career Inspiration twitter:description: The 'Rocky' star inspired him to fight for a role in 'Good Will Hunting' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc52101a4caffc4/698877c45f570f49f3b1f0ea/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Matt Damon Credits Sylvester Stallone With Early Career Inspiration > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jan 6, 2016 1:12 PM UTC  Matt Damon accepts the Chairman’s Award onstage at the 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala at Palm Springs Convention Center on January 2, 2016 in Palm Springs, California. Matt Damon accepts the Chairman’s Award onstage at the 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala at Palm Springs Convention Center on January 2, 2016 in Palm Springs, California.Charley Gallay—Getty Images for PSIFF  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jan 6, 2016 1:12 PM UTC If you count yourself a fan of _The Martian_ or the _Bourne_ franchise, you have…Sylvester Stallone to thank? During the National Board of Review dinner in New York on Tuesday night, Matt Damon—who won the evening’s best actor award—[credited the _Rocky_ star with early-career inspiration](http://variety.com/2016/film/news/matt-damon-credits-sylvester-stallone-for-launching-his-career-at-nbr-dinner-1201673027/). Damon said that while shopping around the screenplay for 1997’s _Good Will Hunting_, which he co-wrote with Ben Affleck and eventually won an Oscar for, studios wanted to cast someone else in the role he ultimately played. It was Stallone, who also wrote the _Rocky_ screenplay in addition to starring in it, who inspired Damon to fight for the role that ultimately launched his movie-star career. “Believe me, they really wanted to take it away from us,” Damon said. “\[Studio executives thought\] ‘God, Leonardo DiCaprio would be so good in this’ … every time they said, ‘You can’t do this,’ we said, ‘It’s been done before.’” \[[_Variety_](http://variety.com/2016/film/news/matt-damon-credits-sylvester-stallone-for-launching-his-career-at-nbr-dinner-1201673027/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/"},"headline":"Matt Damon Credits Sylvester Stallone With Early Career Inspiration","datePublished":"2016-01-06T13:12:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:49:09.152Z","description":"The Rocky star inspired Damon to fight for a role in his movie Good Will Hunting when studios wanted to cast someone else","url":"https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/","keywords":["movies","Matt Damon","Sylvester Stallone"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc52101a4caffc4/698877c45f570f49f3b1f0ea/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebc52101a4caffc4/698877c45f570f49f3b1f0ea/matt-damon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala - Awards Presentation","caption":"27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala - Awards Presentation","creditText":"Charley Gallay—Getty Images for PSIFF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4169074/matt-damon-sylvester-stallone/","name":"Matt Damon Credits Sylvester Stallone With Early Career Inspiration"}}]}] ```