Ben Stiller for Good Will Hunting
本•斯蒂勒《心灵捕手》
While Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Robin Williams were always set as the leads of Good Will Hunting, it wasn't always Gus Van Sant in the director's chair. In fact, the film was initially offered to Ben Stiller to direct. Coming off of directing Reality Bites and The Cable Guy, Stiller was building up quite a repertoire for cult era-defining fair. But Stiller turned it down, primarily because he didn't know who the budding actors-turned-screenwriters were.
虽然本•阿弗莱克、马特•达蒙和罗宾•威廉姆斯一开始就被确定为《心灵捕手》的主演，但导演的第一人选却不是格斯•范•桑特。事实上，这部电影最初邀请了本•斯蒂勒执导。斯蒂勒成功执导了《四个毕业生》和《王牌特派员》，他逐渐积累了很多人气很高的划时代作品。但是斯蒂勒拒绝了《心灵捕手》，主要是因为他不认识那几个演员转行的新人编剧。
"I remember my agent sent me the script for Good Will Hunting to direct," he recalled to Vulture in 2014. "I was like, 'Who are these guys, Affleck and Damon? And why are they attached to this project? No, thank you!' Maybe I'd change that (in hindsight)."
2014年，斯蒂勒对娱乐新闻网站Vulture回忆道：“我记得我的经纪人把需要执导的剧本发给我时，我想的是，‘这些家伙是谁？阿弗莱克和达蒙？他们为什么加入这个项目？算了吧，谢谢！’事后看来，我可能想改变主意。”
Gus Van Sant ended up scoring an Oscar nomination for his work.
格斯•范•桑特最终凭借《心灵捕手》获得了奥斯卡提名。
