Matt Damon says Robin Williams obsessed over every take on Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon just told a very Matt-and-Robin story that pretty much explains why Good Will Hunting still hits as hard as it does: Robin Williams never stopped tinkering. He was the guy who would crush a scene, then immediately wonder if there was a better version hiding around the corner.

How Damon remembers Robin on set

Damon and Ben Affleck spent years grinding on the Good Will Hunting script, and when Williams showed up, he was fully locked in. Prep for days. But that didn’t mean he was done. Damon says Robin kept poking at moments that already worked to see if they could work even better. That relentless refining is part of why the movie still sits near the top of 90s dramas.

The new detail Damon just shared

On Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Damon pulled back the curtain on how deep Williams would go. He brought up something Terry Gilliam told him about working with Robin on The Fisher King: after long shoot days, Robin would call Gilliam late at night to keep digging into character. Not just riffing — obsessing. Once Damon heard that, he started seeing the same pattern firsthand on Good Will Hunting. If something nagged at Robin, they would go back for it — even after a mountain of takes — just to chase the version that felt right.

"Robin would get home, and he would call. He was a ruminator, there were things we went back and and and did another pickup of a thing we shot it 15 times already," Damon said of his late Good Will Hunting co-star.

• Where Damon said it: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• The film: Good Will Hunting, from a script Damon and Ben Affleck developed over years
• How Robin worked: arrived totally prepared, then kept questioning scenes to make them better
• The Gilliam angle: during The Fisher King, Robin would phone Terry Gilliam late at night to talk character — a habit Damon recognized on set later
• The extra mile: Damon says they even returned for pickups after 15 takes if Robin felt there was still something to find

It tracks: everyone remembers Robin as a legendary improviser, but Damon is basically reminding us he was also a perfectionist. The jokes and spontaneity were there, sure, but the engine underneath was a guy who would not let go until the scene felt true. You can feel that in Good Will Hunting — it’s the quiet pressure of a crew that kept going until the thing clicked.