Actors Talk About Crossing Paths Before They Were Famous

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's friendship has a documented story. These Boston-bred pals grew up and wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for the coming-of-age film.Good Will Hunting.

But Damon talked smack before he became a major movie star.

During a 2019interview with Conan O'BrienDamon spoke about a snowy New England day in the 1980s. Kids from the area played tackle football in the snow:

I spoke to this kid I knew, but he was Conan’s height, 6-foot-6. I was maybe 5'3" then, and I said something. I scored on him or something. He came for me. A big guy came at me, and I thought, “Oh man.” Then, Ben Affleck, who was 5'2", tackled this guy off me instantly. I was a junior; he was a freshman. He tackled this kid off me, risking his own life.

Damon saw then that Affleck would be a good friend: "This guy, he will put himself in a really bad spot for me… This is a good friend to have."

Cameron Diaz and Cordozar Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg)both attendedLong Beach Polytechnic High School in California. Diaz told George Lopez in 2011:

We went to high school together. He was a year older and… I remember him. There were thousands of kids in our school; there were like 3,500. I remember him; he was tall and skinny, wearing many ponytails. I think I bought weed from him. I needed to.

Snoop Dogg appeared onLopez Tonighta few years later and shared his thoughts on his former schoolmate:

She ran with my homegirls, all my cheerleading homegirls. She was cool and hip.

Musician Lenny Kravitz is from New York City and grew up a New York Jets fan. New York Jets quarterback Joe Namathlived on East 82nd Streetin NYC in the 1970s.

As a kid, Kravitz got the opportunity to toss the pigskin with the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl for the Jets (in 1969 against the Baltimore Colts).

Kravitzexplained:

I grew up with the Jets. I loved Joe Namath as a kid. I played catch with him in front of my building. He lived across the street. This made me a huge fan. I looked right into his window. I hadn't seen him since I was about nine or ten. I saw him last year; we did Letterman. I was just a kid on the street. He did not know it was me. I started telling him about his apartment things, how he played pool constantly. He laughed. His friend told him, “I bought him that pool table!” That was funny. My father arranged for him to play catch with me once. He also wrote me a note when I went to summer camp: “Hope you're having a great summer… Joe Namath.”

Robert Downey Jr. and Sarah Jessica ParkerThey dated for seven years.They dated in the 1980s before splitting up in 1991. They moved to a place in Los Angeles after dating for only eight weeks. Downey met Kiefer Sutherland on the set of their 1988 drama.1969Sutherland became the third roommate at some point.Downey Jr. revealedduring an interview with Howard Stern:

Sutherland stayed with them for a while. Then I had issues with Sarah Jessica, and he looked after her. That relationship was somewhat incestuous back then. He probably comforted her a bit. He did not steal my girlfriend; he stayed in his relationship. He was a person to cry on. He was better than some stranger.

Before becoming major comedy names, Adam Sandler and Judd Apatowwere apartment roommatesin California's San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles.

Sandler said they were not broke despite their struggles:

They were not broke. They were comedians good enough to survive. They could eat at Red Lobster once a month. That was a big night out.

Apatow added, “That was like, ‘We’re fancy now.’”

Sandler left the Valley for New York City after Lorne Michaels hired him forSaturday Night LiveHowever, he kept paying his rent share in case he was fired fromSNLApatow said:

He just left, acting like he would return, but he did not come back.

Lisa Kudrowmet Conan O'Brienthey met again in the 1980s at an improv class in Los Angeles. The pair started dating but quickly decided they were better off as friends.

Kudrow said, “He was really smart, really funny, and he thought I was funny.”

At first, Kudrow did not see improv as a good choice. But her friend Conan told her not to quit. The actress became skilled enough to join The Groundlings comedy school in Los Angeles.Kudrow recalled:

When you have someone who feels like they understand you... and you can play and joke safely with someone, that is how you find it, that is how you zero in on it… Most of what I do comes from Conan.

Santa Monica High School appears tocreate big starsRob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr., and Sean Penn were friends at the California high school in the 1980s.

In Lowe's autobiography,Stories I Only Tell My FriendsThe former Brat Pack bad boy spoke about his coming-of-age friendship with Sheen. Lowe revealed this to Access Hollywood:

Charlie was always eccentric, wonderful, and an iconoclast, and interesting. We went to a big high school. I recall Charlie wearing a bulletproof vest to school because he thought gangs would attack him. Charlie has opinions; there is no other way about it.

Despite looking like matinee idols, neither Lowe nor Sheen was popular with young women then.

Lowe said, “We were both nerds. I am telling you—he wanted to be a baseball player.”

The West Wingstaralso wrotehe and Sheen would debate everything from the likelihood that the moon is hollow and whether the Trilateral Commission killed J.F.K. to the authenticity of the lunar landings.

Years before John Krasinski and B.J. Novak co-starred onThe Office, the actorsknew each otherin their hometown of Newtown, MA.

Krasinski and Novak played Little League Baseball together. Krasinski told Novak:

I weirdly know him as the “Home Run King” of my Little League. That is not a joke. I think I was on the same team as him at 12, and he was like a legend… he hit the ball so far and so hard, and everyone knew his name as the Home Run King of Newton.

Novak confirmed Krasinski’s story during a 2014 interview with Ellen DeGeneres (but did not call himself the “Home Run King”):

There is a picture in my house of a Little League team I was on in sixth grade. I was sick that day the photo was taken… so John is in this photo that has been in my house my whole life—and I am not. That shows how strange the whole thing is.

Lauren Graham revealed on a2013 episodeofWatch What Happens Livethat she used to be roommates with Connie Britton. The future television stars were actually squatters:

We lived in an empty house we were not supposed to occupy. We had no furniture; we only ate Rice Krispies Treats.

Graham would not share the messy secrets of the Friday Night Lightsactress. However, she did admit Britton left her dirty dishes in the sink.

According to Britton, the pair met in an acting class in New York City and became friends. Then they decided to pack their things and go to Los Angeles together:

Those are actually very good memories. That was the time when everything seemed possible, and we just aimed to live our dream.

Adam Levine and Jonah Hill werebest palsgrowing up. They attended Brentwood High School in Los Angeles.

The Maroon Five frontman said he stayed friends with many of his old Brentwood buddies. His longtime manager was Jonah's brother Jordan Feldstein, who died in 2017 from a heart attack.

Levine and Hill remain close. Levine stated in 2012:

Jonah was family. He was a rebellious kid, just like me. We both disliked school. Then, miraculously, this happened to us both.

Hill told Howard Stern during a 2014 interview.2014 interview.Their friendship is a legacy: "Our dads met in the principal's office in junior high."

Ed Helms and Brian Baumgartner both attended.They both attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA, where they performed in plays together. Years passed before they reconnected as regulars on "The Office," Andy "Nard-Dog" Bernard and Kevin Malone.They appeared in plays together at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Atlanta, GA. Years passed before they reconnected.The Office.Regulars Andy "Nard-Dog" Bernard and Kevin Malone.

Helms.Helms talked about his long relationship with Baumgartner.His long relationship with Baumgartner.

We knew each other from high school. He is a year older. We were not best friends, but we overlapped. We shared a few plays and our high school chorus. This reconnection feels like fun and ridiculous. We went separate ways and then met fifteen years later. A writer on staff went to our high school, Halsted Sullivan.

Helms added in a 2013.Reddit AMA.:

Brian rules. In high school, we used to drive convertibles and hit mailboxes with baseball bats. Wait. That was the movie.Stand by Me.We were in a couple of plays together. He is nothing like Kevin and is a smart, funny, down-to-earth guy. He is also a very good golfer.

Pretty Little Liars.Actress Troian Bellisario was born and raised in Los Angeles.He was raised in Los Angeles.Her parents were acclaimed television producers of several hit shows, including Quantum Leap and Magnum, P.I.Quantum Leap.and Magnum, P.I.Magnum, P.I..

When she was five, Bellisario said she lived across the street from twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.Full House..

I just knew them as the girls across the street. I remember the first time I played with them, and something happened. I realized these kids are not normal. They are treated differently.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey might be Hollywood's most famous best gal pals.Best gal pals.The funny duo met in 1993 during a Chicago improv class. They co-anchored "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live, co-hosted the Golden Globes multiple times, and co-starred together in the comedies Sisters and Baby Mama.Saturday Night Live.Co-host the Golden Globes multiple times, and co-star together in the comedies Sisters and Baby Mama.Sisters.and Baby Mama.Baby Mama..

Poehler said she got her first "real beauty lesson" from Fey:

I was twenty-two or twenty-three. I had just learned you can pluck your eyebrows or have a lady use hot wax to remove parts and shape them.

During a 2017 interview.2017 interviewwith Seth Meyers, Beanie FeldsteinLady Bird., Booksmart.Said she met her future BFF Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) at a bat mitzah in Los Angeles. Platt later joined Feldstein's high school when he was a freshman.Dear Evan Hansen.) at a bat mitzah in Los Angeles. Platt later enrolled at Feldstein's high school when he was a freshman.

Feldstein said the theater stars instantly became best friends.

The second week of school, he got his braces off. He texted me, "I got my braces off." I left class to see his teeth. I am a goodie-goodie, and I love school. So he said, "I must mean a lot to you."

Best buds have.signed on.Beanie Feldstein played the long game in Richard Linklater's movie musical.Merrily We Roll Along.It is similar to the auteur's film.Boyhood.Boyhood was filmed over 12 years.Merrily We Roll Along.Merrily We Roll Along will film over two decades.