Eight Lasting Hollywood Bromances

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My first exposure to a bromance was in the era of Matt & Ben, when a pair of Bostonians nabbed an Oscar for Good Will Hunting.  They were fresh faced and naïve, but it tugged at your heart strings just a bit to see best friends succeed together.  And while girlfriends have come and go (J Lo, Minnie Driver), Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s bro bond has only grown stronger.  Thankfully the age of the bromance did not die with Gigli and brodeos everywhere have been helping men succeed in Hollywood.

Will Ferrell and John C Reilly

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Will Ferrell is a ball of spastic energy that cannot be contained by any fabric known to man.  He showed us in Saturday Night Live that he’s not afraid of walking into a board room in an American flag speedo and lunging uncomfortably into his fellow actors.  That is to say – he’s a hilarious comedian but how many guys can even keep up with him?  John C Reilly’s “aw shucks” personality is the perfect blend to Ferrell’s mania.  And these off screen friends have shown that they can strike the perfect buddy comedy timing in films such as Talladega Nights.  If you haven’t seen the outtakes of that movie, run don’t walk to watch them.  John and Will can barely contain their own laughter in promoting fake causes and products for NASCAR (the PSA on snowblindness in cats is my favorite).

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen

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This bromance has it all: knights, Shakespearean trained actors, British accents, geek culture icons and gay rights activists.  Ian and Patrick became friends on X-Men and their friendship has flourished to the delight of twitter fans everywhere. Ian McKellen even performed the wedding ceremony for Patrick Stewart and his wife Suzie Ozell in 2013. At 74 and 73, the pair shows no signs of slowing down their contribution to the arts.  They are currently rehearsing on Broadway for a new production of Waiting for Godot.

James Franco and Seth Rogen

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

James and Seth met on the set of the brilliant-but-cancelled series, Freaks & Geeks.  They remained off screen friends and reunited in Pineapple Express.  Recently they parodied their own friendship on This Is The End with Franco shouting “freaks forever” to Rogen.  And because the internet world needed it, they also recreated the Bound 3 Kanye West video complete with a topless Seth.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson

World Premiere of Starsky and Hutch

Their pairing is the yin yang of friendship, with Owen’s laid back cowboy persona taking the edge off of Ben Stiller’s inner anxious New Yorker.    The bromance started when Ben hired Owen to work on The Cable Guy due his admiration of Wilson’s first movie, Bottle Rocket.  Owen returned the favor by casting Ben Stiller in Royal Tenenbaums, a movie that like fine wine, gets even better with age.  In total they’ve worked on 11 films together.

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