Minnie Driver wishes she could give her younger self a hug.
During a recent appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” the actress opened up about the range of emotions she was feeling while at the Oscars in 1998, when she was nominated for best supporting actress for her work in “Good Will Hunting.”
When the host brought up a recently resurfaced clip on Instagram of Driver reacting to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s acceptance speech for writing the movie in which she looks upset, the actress shared feeling “super super overwhelmed,” saying her recent breakup was a big contributing factor.
“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, but I think anyone who’s been heartbroken can understand, it’s like the last thing you want is everybody having a window in on that and it was so public,” she explained.
She continued: “The reaction when they won, and they cut to me because there was a camera right in the face of the poor young 25-year-old girl, who’s about to burst into tears.”
Driver originally commented on the Instagram video of the moment, writing “My face” with a number of laughing emojis.
“Matt had ended our relationship a few weeks before this, and was at the Oscars with his new gf,” she explained in another comment. “I was devastated. Wish I could have celebrated more as it was an amazing moment for all of us, and for this wonderful film !”
The actress shared with Hudson that she felt compelled to explain her state of mind in the video, as it was the first time she had seen any video of her reaction, saying it was “so raw and so vulnerable” that she had to comment.
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When a screenshot of her watching Affleck and Damon during their speech appeared on the screen, Driver couldn’t help but feel sorry for her younger self, saying, “Oh my God, my little face,” and that she just “want[s] to wrap [her] arms around that young woman and hug her,” and let her know that everything will work out for her.
“From this vantage point, you know, 20/20 vision much later in my life,” she told Hudson. “I wish I could have told her ‘Honey, it’s cool. Like you can celebrate and life’s going to be great and beautiful and hard and amazing, and you’re going to love again. It’ll be fine.”
Driver and Damon met on the set of “Good Will Hunting” and dated for around a year. Following their breakup, Damon went on to date Winona Ryder, Odessa Whitmire and Luciana Barroso, whom he would go on to marry in 2005.
The actress dated Josh Brolin, who she was briefly engaged to in 2001, and Timothy J. Lea, who she welcomed her son, Henry, with in 2008. She is currently romantically linked to Addison O’Dea.
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“I tell [the story of our relationship] with love, because that was just a sweet romance that was just a sweet love affair in the center of all of that stuff, but had a combustible ending, which then became the focus,” she told Entertainment Tonight in May 2022. “Another thing that my parents taught me, was there just isn’t any time to sit around feeling resentful or angry, just have to get on and everybody had a beautiful life.”
