The truth about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's winning friendship

"Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are childhood friends...This is their first Academy Award."

So intoned the announcer at the 1998 Oscars as the boisterous pair, still looking like a couple of kids from the neighborhood at 25 and 27, headed to the stage to accept their win for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting—the film they decided to write together in between auditions to give themselves the sort of material that interested them as actors.

"We're just really two young guys who were fortunate enough to be involved with a lot of great people…There's no way we're doing this in less than 20 seconds," Affleck gushed excitedly as they dissolved into their thank-yous, with extra-special shout-outs going to their mothers (both of whom were in the audience), Damon's dad and the city of Boston—the setting for their film and the formative years of their enduring friendship.

Twenty-five years later, Affleck and Damon are still in business—literally, they started their own studio—and are having more fun working with each other these days than ever.

At the Los Angeles premiere of their new movie Air, based on the true story of how Nike courted future NBA superstar Michael Jordan to sign with the Oregon company's then-only-fledgling basketball division in 1984, Affleck called directing Damon "the joy of my professional life to get to work with my friend in that way."

Damon, 52, joked that Affleck's been directing him "for 40 years," but to do so in this official capacity, with cameras rolling and everything, was "really exciting. It was the best summer job I ever had."