Jimmy Kimmel Says Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Offered to Pay His Staff During Strike

“I felt that that was not their responsibility,” the late-night host said of turning down the offer

Jimmy Kimmel has generous friends in Hollywood.

The late-night host, 55, joined fellow hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and John Oliver on the new podcast, Strike Force Five.

At one point, Kimmel said his longtime pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon offered to pay his Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff's salaries during the ongoing writers’ strike.

"Ben Affleck and the despicable Matt Damon contacted me and offered to pay our staff for two weeks," Kimmel said, the “despicable” being a reference to the long-running joke feud between the pair.

"A week each, they wanted to pay out of their own pockets our staff,” Kimmel said of the Good Will Hunting stars, to which Fallon said in response that they are "good people."

“I felt that that was not their responsibility,” Kimmel said, who turned down their offer.

Last month, Damon, 52, told the Associated Press at a red carpet event for Oppenheimer in London just before the actors' strike that it was "unbelievably important” for the union to safeguard the actors’ interests amid the strike.

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"We got to protect the people who are kind of on the margins," Damon said at the time. "26,000 bucks a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance, and there are a lot of people who residual payments are what carry them across that threshold. If those residual payments dry up, so does their health care, and that’s absolutely unacceptable."

On Strike Force Five Wednesday, Kimmel — host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which he’s hosted since 2003 — also revealed he was ready to retire in wake of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in May.

“I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started,” Kimmel said. “And now I realize, oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work.”

Related: Late-Night Super Group! Find Out Why Colbert, Meyers, Oliver and Both Jimmys Are Teaming Up

“When you are working you think about not working,” he added.

Meyers asked: “Kimmel, c’mon, you are the Tom Brady of late night … you have feigned retirement… Are we to take you at your word?”

Kimmel replied, “I was serious. I was very, very serious,” also confessing that he likes to take summers off when he’s getting paid.

Related: Late-Night Shows Shut Down as Hollywood Writers Strike Begins After Failed Negotiations

Since May 2, more than 1,000 writers from various media platforms such as TV, film, news and online have been on strike as part of the WGA. The labor union demanded better pay, more residuals and restrictions on artificial intelligence use.

The production of late-night shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Daily Show halted, with reruns being broadcast.

Fallon, Meyers, Colbert, Oliver and Kimmel announced the launch of their limited series on Tuesday, which explores the hosts commenting on “the Hollywood strikes and beyond." 

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