There’s no bad blood between Minnie Driver and her ex-boyfriend Matt Damon.
“I run into Matt and his wife on the beach, and I’m always happy to see them,” Driver, 55, told The Times of London in a Saturday, December 6, profile. “I don’t see them much.”
Damon, 55, has been married to Luciana Barroso since 2005. He famously dated Driver, his love interest in Good Will Hunting, from 1997 to 1998.
While speaking with The Times, Driver shared that she’s even a fan of Damon and his longtime collaborator, Ben Affleck.
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“Him and Ben have such great chemistry that they must have been together in a past life,” Driver quipped.
Driver has also moved on from the pair’s late-90s relationship, finding love with filmmaker Addison O’Dea.
“[He is] my beautiful forever person. I got incredibly lucky,” the British actress gushed of her partner, going on to reveal her rules for a successful relationship. “Be kind, listen, pay attention to the fact they listen to you and have lots of sex.”
Amid Driver’s longtime romance, she and Damon have managed to remain civil through the years.
“I did see Matt Damon on the beach and I had not had a conversation with him, seriously, since we made the film,” Driver previously said during an appearance on the “Keep It!” podcast in September 2021. “That was last summer and it was actually very nice to see him, and his kids and his wife, and it all felt quite middle-aged actually, which was reassuring.”
According to Driver, her 2021 beachside reunion with Damon was the first time that they were in the same space in 20 years.
“I feel like so much of the folly of youth went on with our initial relationship, like it was amazing and tabloid,” she added on the podcast. “So that was nice to just have sort of a middle-aged conversation about the weather and stuff.”
As the now-exes have each moved on, Driver briefly put her accomplished career on the back burner to raise her son, Henry, now 17.
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“When Henry was younger, I basically stopped making movies because I wanted him to have a regular life,” she told The Times. “I wanted him to have a normal life and play football and have people over for tea. I did that for eight years. And, in that time, I did two TV shows and then just went to the beach. And then, COVID kind of changed everything.”
The coronavirus pandemic also inspired Driver, O’Dea and Henry’s move out of California and back to the actress’ native England.
“It was really difficult for a couple of years after moving back but now I love it,” Driver added.
Driver has also found a renewed passion for her career, booking roles in the play Every Brilliant Thing and Netflix series Run Away and Emily in Paris.
“I did Emily in Paris because it’s one of the most popular shows on television, and it’s very cannily written, but it’s confection in dark times,” Driver teased of joining Lily Collins’ Netflix comedy, which premieres its fifth season later this month. “We are living in pretty astonishing times and the schisms between people are becoming more chasm-like. The way my friends’ faces lit up when I told them I was doing Emily in Paris made me realize it brings so much joy to so many people.”
Driver will play Princess Jane, a friend of Sylvie’s (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), in a surprise reunion with Collins, 36.
“I’ve known Lily Collins since she was 11 as I’d worked with her dad [Phil Collins] years ago on Tarzan,” Driver added, referring to Phil’s work on the 1999 animated film’s soundtrack. “Lily is actually the person you want to see as No. 1 on a call sheet. She’s a good person and a good leader.”
