From visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott comes “The Last Duel,” a gripping tale of betrayal and vengeance set against the brutality of 14th century France. Based on actual events, the film unravels long-held assumptions about France's last sanctioned duel between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, two friends turned bitter rivals. Carrouges is a respected knight known for his bravery and skill on the battlefield. Le Gris is a Norman squire whose intelligence and eloquence make him one of the most admired nobles in court. When Carrouges' wife, Marguerite, is viciously assaulted by Le Gris, a charge he denies, she refuses to stay silent, stepping forward to accuse her attacker, an act of bravery and defiance that puts her life in jeopardy. The ensuing trial by combat, a grueling duel to the death, places the fate of all three in God's hands.

Entertainment Affair recently joined film stars Matt Damon, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck along with co-writer Nicole Holofcener, for a virtual press conference to discuss the film. Check out a few highlights of the event below.

Question: Matt, it’s almost 25 years since Good Will Hunting. In that time frame, did you have ideas that you guys maybe thought about working on together? Why this story and why now?
MATT DAMON: I think we were just afraid of writing because we were so inefficient. It was so time-consuming the first time we did it because we didn’t know what we were doing. It literally took us years, and we wrote thousands and thousands of pages that we basically scrunched into a 130-page screenplay. Just by doing movies for 25 years and by osmosis, we figured out structure, so the process turned out to be really efficient.

Question: This is a story that happened hundreds of years ago, but there are stories like this happening today. It’s a delicate balance, where you have to be true to these characters in their time frame and the ethics, moralities, and constructs of gender from that time, but it’s going to be consumed by a modern audience. How did you balance that?
BEN AFFLECK: That was a very deliberate thing. Part of what we wanted to point out was the extent to which corrupt and morally bankrupt and misogynist institutions create and produce people who reflect those values. And so, rather than just an indictment of a bad person or a bad man, you have the church, you have science, you have the court, you have this whole Western-European civilization, of which we are an antecedent, culturally, by and large. At least, that’s the notion of the United States, is that it’s the result of the Enlightenment and its philosophies, even though that’s actually not true. The idea here is that this predominant culture comes from this other culture that is what produced these values, and this culture, in terms of how it educates people, what it rewards socially, and the behavior that is encouraged.

The film is told in three acts from distinct perspectives – first of the two men (Carrouges and Le Gris) and ending with the truth from Marguerite de Carrouges. Damon and Affleck collaborated on the script with Holofcener who was able to offer a female voice to the script.

Question: Nicole, since you wrote the majority of the Marguerite perspective for her point of view, did you also have any influence over the earlier acts that she’s in?
NICOLE HOLOFCENER: I wanted people to wonder why Jodie Comer took this lousy part and why she’s barely in this movie, playing this obsequious wife who thinks her husband is all that. And then, by the time we get to the third act, I wanted to say, “No, this is actually the truth. She’s actually a human being.”

Question: Jodie, Marguerite’s story perfectly plays into how women’s suffering frustratingly gets caught up in men’s pride and politics, and even though it’s medieval times, that translates to contemporary issues. Do you think it’s more important than ever for an audience to get a chance to see this story?
JODIE COMER: Yes. The sad part about this story is that you could say, for any part of history that’s gone by, that this story is relevant. They’re extremely delicate subjects and they need to be handled with sensitivity. For me, especially in regards to the rape scenes, I knew they couldn’t be gratuitous. They had to be moving the story forward. That was always at the front of everybody’s minds because you know that there are gonna be many people who watch this film and, sadly, relate to it, in some way. That can be difficult to execute and it can be difficult to watch, but I believe we shouldn’t shy away from it for that reason, as long as it’s handled with care.

The Last Duel is now playing only in theaters.