One of Matt Damon's Harvard professors gave him a small note that completely changed 'Good Will Hunting'
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/553918e16bb3f7e01e5577b6-1200-600/good-will-hunting-tribeca-panel.jpg" border="0" alt="Good Will Hunting Tribeca Panel">
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The making of "Good Will Hunting" is the stuff of cinematic legend.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> That is partially because the script earned writers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Oscars for best original screenplay and launched them both into stardom. </span>
But they weren't the only ones to contribute to the classic script.
At a Tribeca Film Festival<span> </span>panel<span> </span>held on Wednesday, moderator Faith Saile brought up that Damon began working on the idea for the script during a playwriting class he took while attending Harvard. Originally, the character of Will Hunting, who Damon ended up playing, was a physics prodigy.
However, Sheldon Glashow, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who teaches at Harvard, told Damon that he should be brilliant at math instead of physics.<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55391a90ecad048c7a2d5fe7-1200-600/matt-damon-good-will-hunting-4.png" border="0" alt="Matt Damon Good Will Hunting" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That may not sound like a big difference, but according to Columbia University physics and mathematics professor Brian Greene, who spoke at the panel about how "Good Will Hunting" portrays math and science, it makes a lot more sense.</span>
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He went on to explain why physics wouldn't have worked as well in the context of the film.</span>
"Having some deep insight about the universe, though, typically, it's a group project in the modern era," Greene said. "Doing some mathematical theorem is a singular undertaking very often."
This works well for both the film and the character of Will. After all, Will's genius makes him something of a loner, and the more people want to work with him and help him, the more he pushes away. It just seems like a group project wouldn't benefit him.
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55391b6decad04537f2d5fe2-1200-600/good-will-hunting-matt-damon.png" border="0" alt="Good Will Hunting Matt Damon">
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55391c32eab8eaef73ac5d57-1200-600/good-will-hunting-equation.png" border="0" alt="Good Will Hunting Equation"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It also seems like one of the film's most important moments, in which nobody realizes that it is the janitor who has finished the equation written out on a chalkboard, would not have existed without this change.</span></span>
"You've got this guy who sees a problem on the board and he goes ahead and solves it. It's unlikely someone could look at physics by themselves and come up with a theory of the origin of the universe," Greene said, "it's just less believable."
"Good Will Hunting" would go on to gross $225.9 million worldwide and win two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Robin Williams) and Best Original Screenplay (Affleck, Damon).
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<b>See Also:</b>
<ul><li>A fan asked Christopher Nolan about the end of 'Inception' and he explained why he'd never tell</li><li>Christopher Nolan made a bunch of ‘Star Wars'-inspired movies when he was a kid</li><li>Christopher Nolan says he's most proud of the opening scene in 'The Dark Knight Rises'</li></ul>
SEE ALSO: Christopher Nolan made a bunch of ‘Star Wars'-inspired movies when he was a kid
AND: A fan asked Christopher Nolan about the end of "Inception" and he explained why he'd never tell