Angela Weiss/Getty ImagesBen Affleck and Matt Damon's bromance is one to admire.
The Martian actor came to his buddy's defense while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining how Affleck's relationship with Jennifer Lopez had the public perceiving him in a way that was so far from the truth.
"There's nobody who's more misunderstood," he says of the 43-year-old actor. "Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been farther apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez."
Damon continued, "He just got cast as this person that he wasn't. It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn't fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all. And through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top and past where either of us had ever been."
(In other words, Ben went from Gigli to Argo.)
The high-profile stars famously got together in 2002, and became the first celeb pairing to inspire a hybrid name. Thus, "Bennifer" was born, but the twosome called it quits in January 2004 after a rocky engagement.
After their big breakup, Affleck eventually found love with his now-estranged wife, Jennifer Garner, whom he married in 2005, while Lopez got together with her now-ex-husband Marc Anthony.
Damon wouldn't speak on the rumors surrounding his split with Garner. Meanwhile, the two actors' agent insists these two guys are alike in many ways and "very committed."
"In the marketplace, everything gets exaggerated," says WME's Patrick Whitesell. "These guys are both super interested in doing a range of things—Matt's diversity as an actor and Ben going down the road of writing, acting and directing. They're all things that come from an artistic place, and they love the challenge of it. That spark is where they are very similar. And on a philanthropic level, they're both very, very committed."
They're just meant to be.