Matt Damon says it was 'painful' to be Ben Affleck's friend while he dated Jennifer Lopez

He says Affleck was falsely percieved as a "talentless meathead"

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at the premiere of Affleck's film Argo (AP)

Matt Damon has defended his close friend Ben Affleck, saying it was “painful” to be his friend during his highly publicised relationship with Jennifer Lopez.

He explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that Affleck, who he worked with on the script for 1997's Good Will Hunting, has a much different personality than the ‘talentless meathead’ one perceived by the public.

“There’s nobody who’s more misunderstood,” said Damon, who was promoting his new movie, The Martian.

“Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been father apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez.”

Affleck’s relationship with Lopez earned them the nickname ‘Bennifer’ between 2002-2004. They met on the set of the critically-panned movie Gigli, and Affleck later starred in Lopez’s video for ‘Jenny From The Block’.

“He just got cast as this person that he wasn’t,” Damon says. “It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn’t fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all.”

While Affleck has managed to make a professional bounce-back after landing the male lead in the movie adaptation of Gone Girl last year, Damon has managed to get stuck in his own misunderstood phase.

First he was accused of ‘whitesplaining’ diversity to a black producer on HBO’s Project Greenlight, and earlier this week he had to clarify his comments on whether gay actors should come out or not.

Maybe we’ll look back on this in ten years and laugh, eh Ben?