Matt Damon and Ben Affleck grew up together, meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts, back in 1980.
The two followed similar paths in acting and have starred together in several classic films, including Good Will Hunting, Dogma, The Last Duel and Air. In 2026, they reunited for The Rip, an action thriller released on Netflix.
In 2005, however, both Damon and Affleck were approached to star in the action thriller Four Brothers. They turned down the project for the same reason, reportedly describing the script as “ultra-violent.”
According to IMDb’s Four Brothers trivia, “Ethan Hawke, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck all turned down the part of Bobby. Ethan Hawke loved the script, but could not commit to it, because of scheduling conflicts. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck both said no, because they found the script to be ‘ultra-violent’.”
Mark Wahlberg, another Boston native, ultimately played Bobby Mercer. The film also starred André 3000, Tyrese Gibson, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Garrett Hedlund, with John Singleton directing.
IMDb describes the film’s premise: “When their adoptive mother is gunned down in a store robbery, four brothers decide to investigate the murder and find the killers themselves, but not all is what it seems.”
Four Brothers Turned Out to Be a Success
While Four Brothers doesn’t always rank among the greatest thrillers of all time, it has a cult-classic vibe and proved successful when it hit theaters in 2005.
The film had an estimated production budget of $30 million to $45 million and grossed approximately $92.5 million worldwide, earning roughly two to three times its production budget.
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