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Office Space is an all-time classic, right? But hold up—what if I told you that Good Will Hunting legends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were almost the stars? Yep, for real. Back in the day, Fox was all about casting Ben and Matt for the role that went to Ron Livingston. But here’s the plot twist: Ron Livingston’s audition was straight-up fire and couldn’t be ignored.
Mike Judge, the genius behind the film, was looking for someone who didn’t have “star energy”—and Affleck and Damon riding high on their fame. He met with Matt Damon, who was super into the script but still knew Livingston was his guy. “I’d found Peter,” Judge said. And that’s how Peter Gibbons, the ultimate office drone, was born.
But wait, there’s more to the Office Space casting than Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. While Peter was getting his cubicle moment, Jennifer Aniston was being cast as Joanna (the waitress who gives Peter all the feels) —before she became a Friends icon. At the time, Aniston wasn’t exactly a household name, and she was just hyped to do a comedy like Office Space. She even said, “I was excited about doing a comedy like Office Space; features like that weren’t flying my way at that point.” Talk about humble beginnings.
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