Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are growing out their beards together for ‘RIP’

Friends that grow beards together stay together.

Longtime pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are both sporting beards, and apparently there’s a special reason for the unexpected twinning. During a recent interview with ExtraTV, the two were asked about the status of their upcoming film RIP, when Damon quipped, “Well, we’re in the middle of [filming] it, that’s why we’re bearded.”

“Yes, everything you need to know, you can see right here,” Affleck added, rubbing his beard in the clip from the interview, which also featured Cillian Murphy.

The two didn’t go into further details on why exactly their characters are sporting beards in RIP, but did share that the film should hopefully be released next year, though that is still officially to be determined by Netflix.

“We’ve made eight movies now in a couple of years [through their company Artists Equity], and this is our first partnership with Netflix, so we’re just figuring that out, and they have a different way of planning their slate of movies, so we’re figuring it out,” Affleck explained. “But we all are very excited about it, we’ve got a great cast, and we’re really, really looking forward to the movie coming out.”

Artists Equity, the artist-led studio that Damon and Affleck founded in 2022, is producing RIP, which hails from writer-director Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin’ Aces). Damon and Affleck will also be starring in the film, which is being described as a crime thriller, though details on the plot are being kept very under wraps.

Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One, The Book of Clarence), Sasha Calle (The Flash, The Young and the Restless), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Silent Night, Maria Full of Grace), and Néstor Carbonell (Shōgun, The Morning Show) have also been announced to star in RIP.

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Affleck and Damon have known each other for more than 40 years, having gone to school together at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School outside of Boston and later lived together during their early days in Hollywood.

The two both famously won Oscars for cowriting the 1997 drama Good Will Hunting, and, even before forming their production company, they’ve worked on numerous projects together over the years, such as The Last Duel, Jersey Girl, Dogma, and more.