Move over, Ilya and Shane — it turns out Matt Damon and Ben Affleck almost pioneered the gay sports romance genre long before Heated Rivalry dominated the cultural zeitgeist.
Damon revealed on Andy Cohen Live this week that he and his Boston bestie were very close to making a queer baseball movie — which is totally giving High School Musical 2 vibes with Ryan and Chad.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck almost made a gay baseball movie
The topic came up when host Andy Cohen teased Damon for playing hockey with Affleck when they were younger, “like in Heated Rivalry”.
“No, we did not play hockey. Baseball,” Damon clarified. “I don’t know if you’ve read The Dreyfus Affair; it’s a different sport.”
When Cohen said he was surprised Damon had read the 1992 gay novel by Peter Lefcourt, The Odyssey actor revealed that he almost adapted it into a movie.
“It’s a great book,” he said. “We almost made it years ago. The script just wasn’t good enough, but the book was great.”
The Dreyfus Affair follows Randy Dreyfus, a happily married baseball superstar, who suddenly falls in love with second baseman D. J. Pickett. The rom-com tackles homophobia within professional sports and how their romance impacts their lives, their families and their team — sound familiar?
A gay romance involving Damon and Affleck definitely would’ve been… interesting. Not only have the childhood besties worked together countless times — even winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting — but there’s a long-running online theory that they’re secretly lovers. It’s just a theory, OKAY?
I mean, who could blame fans for assuming when Affleck jokingly labelled himself the “top” and Damon the “bottom” in their friendship on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2010.
They’ve also both had somewhat gay experiences on screen, with Affleck kissing a male co-star in Chasing Amy and Damon playing Liberace’s younger lover Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra. There were even rumours that they would both star in Brokeback Mountain before Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were eventually cast.
However, let’s not forget when Damon willingly confessed in a 2021 interview that he had only recently “retired the f-slur” after his daughter told him it was homophobic. Right…
Anyway, Damon also admitted to Cohen in this week’s interview that he hasn’t been watching Heated Rivalry and has “only heard about it”. Who knows whether the show’s global success will make him consider giving The Dreyfus Affair another go, but I’d definitely watch it.
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