Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Almost Made a Gay Baseball Romance Together, Which Could Mean Nothing
The decades-long friendship between Ben Affleck and Matt Damon has defied explanation, sparking beautiful creative collaborations and memes in equal measure. The pair are currently in the middle of promoting their latest movie, Netflix’s The Rip… but it’s a movie that they didn’t make that is making headlines.
During a recent appearance on The Andy Cohen Show, Cohen brought up the most popular, inescapable interview topic of the moment, Heated Rivalry. Damon took the topic into a territory that no one could have really imagined, revealing that he and Affleck almost made their own queer sports movie in a completely different realm.
“No, we did not play hockey. Baseball,” Damon revealed. “I don’t know if you’ve read The Dreyfus Affair; it’s a different sport… It’s a great book. We almost made it years ago. The script just wasn’t good enough, but the book was great.”
Published by Peter Lefcourt in the 1990s, The Dreyfus Affair centers around happily-married baseball star Randy Dreyfus, whose life changes forever when he falls in love with DJ Pickett, the shortstop on his team. As they navigate their new relationship in public and private, the ensuing journey takes them on an emotional roller coaster.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the only surprising baseball movie that Affleck and Damon have attempted to make (and star in). Beginning in the 2010s, the duo were attached to The Trade, a film chronicling the real-life story of New York Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich. In the 1970s, after being friends for several years, the duo decided to publicly swap wives and families. While Kekich and Peterson’s wife Marilyn’s relationship fizzled out after a few months, Peterson and Kekich’s wife Suzanne remained happily married until his death in 2023.
The project has fizzled out in the years since, in part because Kekich and other Yankees alums actively refused to participate in the project. In lieu of that movie, if you want to find out more about the story, I highly recommend The Dollop‘s podcast episode on the ordeal. And who knows? Maybe The Dreyfus Affair will be the baseball movie that the pair are able to make into a reality.
(featured image: John Nacion/FilmMagic)
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