Minnie Driver Reveals the Advice She'd Give Her Younger Self After Matt Damon Split

Minnie Driver is sending her younger self some goodwill.

The Good Will Hunting actress recently shared insight into what it was like seeing her reaction to ex Matt Damon winning the Oscar for writing the 1997 film and revealed what she wishes she could've told herself back then.

"First of all, I want to wrap my arms around that young woman and hug her and go, 'It's all going to be fine, honey. Don't worry,'" Minnie said on the March 14 episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show. "We'd recently broken up. I was nominated, he was nominated, the movie was so amazing, he had a new girlfriend. I was totally heartbroken."

Being in the public eye, she couldn't navigate that heartache with total privacy.

"Anyone who's been heartbroken can understand," she shared, "it's like the last thing you want is everybody having a window in on that and it was so public."

And while Academy Awards viewers may witnessed her pain on screen when Matt and Ben Affleck won the original screenplay prize during the 1998 ceremony, Minnie said she'd only recently seen the video of her watching the pair take the stage .

"I hadn't seen the clip—I don't know that I'd ever seen it," the 54-year-old, who was also nominated for her supporting role in Good Will Hunting, explained. "I'd never seen my face—the reaction when they won. And they cut to me 'cause it was a camera right in the face of the poor, young, 25-year-old girl who's about to burst into tears."

So Minnie's comment—in which she recalled being "devastated" and noted Matt had broken up with her only weeks before—was in response to the "raw and vulnerable" moment. And if the Circle of Friends star could go back in time, she'd tell herself everything would be OK.   

"From this vantage point—you know, 20/20 vision much later in my life," she added, "I wish I could have told her, ‘Honey, it's cool. Like you can celebrate, and life's gonna be great, and beautiful, and hard and amazing. And you're gonna love again. It'll be fine.'"

Still, Minnie indicated she would have appreciated a little more empathy from the public at the time.

"A heartbreak is private," she noted. "And then if you're an actress, it can be very public. So maybe just us all relating to each other a bit more as humans and we have these similar experiences through different lenses—perhaps we can treat each other all a bit more kindly."

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