Ben Affleck: In the early years, people saw me a ‘callow frat guy who’s cavalier’

affleck EW

Ben Affleck’s Bennfer glow-up is no joke. Originally, back in 2002-03, the glow-up was too much, he was too bronzed, too varnished-looking, too Ken doll. But that’s the thing about a revival 18 years later – he’s older and wiser, and the glow-up is more subtle. Suddenly, he doesn’t look like the beefy and Botoxed 40-something chasing his youth. He looks like a man who is nearly 50, who is comfortable in his own skin and happy with his 50-year-old girlfriend. Let’s hope. Ben covers Entertainment Weekly to promote The Tender Bar, and the interview was conducted by Matt Damon. It is quite annoying at times, but Ben does say some very interesting stuff here and there – you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

On George Clooney: “I think it’s hard to overestimate the degree to which a director’s attitude, openness, comfort, generosity pervades the set and sets a tone. George does that better than I do. And he was enormously respectful of the degree to which I take very seriously my need to be there with my children for my half of the custody. I mean, he bent over backwards. You didn’t have to be there until midnight every night [or] obliterate the rest of your life in order to do this. Because he’s got this spectacular wife, he’s got his children, he’s got a very rich, full life. He’s got to sell coffee— Tequila and coffee. That’s no joke…I’ll tell you what I want to be. I want to be George Clooney selling coffee and tequila. Because that really frees you up to do the movies you want to do.

On his early work: “Starting off, you have these ideas about success. You know, my mother made $28,000 a year. So I would be like, “How could I justifiably say no to this?” Just not understanding the value of turning things down. People talk about your choices and I want to say, “Well, it’s not like I was passing on Scorsese movies.” Like, “No, Marty, I’m good. I’m going to do Surviving Christmas.” Part of our fates are controlled by the opportunities we have in terms of material and directors.

Where Gigli sits with him now: “…The truth about that movie and what it taught me was how much everything around a movie sort of dictates the way people see it. But for being a movie that’s such a famous bomb and a disaster, very few people actually saw the movie. It doesn’t work, by the way. It’s a sort of horse’s head in a cow’s body. And the studio at the time, because I had begun having this relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which was selling a lot of magazines and appeared to generate a lot of enthusiasm, they just predictably latched onto, “They want a romantic comedy. They want the two of them together. More of that!” And it was just like that SNL sketch: “Bad Idea.”

Gigli just never worked: “But even movies like The Sum of All Fears that worked commercially but didn’t have any depth to them, I didn’t do anything particularly interesting in them. [Gigli] didn’t work and we did five weeks of reshoots, which we knew were not gonna work. It was a movie that didn’t work…. Interestingly, I learned more about directing on that movie than anything else because Marty is a brilliant director, really gifted. It’s not like it’s worse than all… there’s a bunch of horrible movies and in terms of losing money, I’ve had five movies — at least! — that have lost more money than Gigli has. It’s just that it became a story in and of itself. The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm.

What he thought his job was in the Bennifer 1.0 years: “I thought my job was to be a cipher. I can see now how people looked at me and thought of this person as some callow frat guy who’s cavalier, or has too much. It engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me. There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt. But if the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, “I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,” which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life. So in those ways, it’s a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.

Being able to sell magazines, but not movie tickets. “I remember feeling like it was the worst of both worlds. I always viewed it that the tax you paid to get the chance to do this work was to sacrifice your private life, and people were going to have license to make sport of you to some degree. And I didn’t go into it blindly. I knew that Sean Penn and Madonna were a tabloid story when I was young. I knew that could happen. Jennifer and I happened to be together at a time where the whole industry of celebrity journalism, if you want to call it that, sort of exploded. But I thought, “S—, this is really not how I had hoped to go, where I’m going to be, what? Famous for being an a–hole or a failure and not able to work?”

[From EW]

The whole piece was pretty interesting and I didn’t even include some of my favorite parts, where Matt and Ben were reminiscing about Robin Williams, and how Ben thought Dazed and Confused was a huge bomb, and his delight in seeing it become a cult classic. Ben even says that the only film on his CV that his kids have even watched is Armageddon and Matt admits that, at the time, he would have said yes to Armageddon too. The stuff about Gigli is getting the most attention, and for the life of me, I don’t understand why Ben cannot bury that ghost. J.Lo doesn’t have to still “wear” Gigli all the years later. I’ve always said/believed that Ben needs to approach the Gigli conversation differently, or just… with fewer words.

Cover & IG courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.

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62 Responses to “Ben Affleck: In the early years, people saw me a ‘callow frat guy who’s cavalier’”

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  1. Eurogirl70 says:

    and?

  2. Selene says:

    I think it also has to do with the fact that JLo isn’t asked about Gigli. She’s expanded into so many avenues that overshadow Gigli (and will continue to do so). In contrast, the press knows how triggered Ben gets about the movie and they seek his reaction and frustration because Ben is good at complaining.

  3. margot says:

    He’s always whining about Gigli. It’s been almost 20 years! move on!

    • Carolnr says:

      Ben is going to be soon whining about those pants he wore for the cover of Entertainment Weekly..

  4. Scorpion says:

    I still see him a gigantic douche so there’s that.

  5. Vanessa says:

    I think Ben is impress with Jlo the way she go different areas
    You don’t hear her complaining. I like Ben but he need to stop talking about the past.

  6. Whiskey Juliet says:

    I still see him as a callow and cavalier douche bro frat boy. Doesn’t mostly everyone?

  7. girl_ninja says:

    Why is he still talking about Gigli? Move on man. Matt Damon sucks.

  8. Bettyrose says:

    I remember him saying after Goodwill Hunting that it was unfair he and Matt Damon were perceived differently based on a dice toss that landed Matt the staring role. And so his reaction was what? To spend decades proving everyone right with consistent douchey frat bro behavior?

  9. Ann says:

    Well, he did Pearl Harbor, so reputation kind of earned. They turned a movie about a deadly attack that helped launch a war into a buddy comedy/romance. Wearing hula shirts.

    That said, I like Ben more than I like Matt. I think he’s a better actor, better looking, and marginally more honest about his douchiness.

  10. B says:

    He seems like such a negative person. Always complaining about something.

    • Barbie1 says:

      Yes. Don’t worry Ben we see you for who you really are all these years. Selfish, quick to blame others for your own problems (such as Garner making you an alcoholic and blaming Jlo for negative press the first time around) and friend of Weinstein. Do f*ck off.

  11. LMG says:

    Personality and life choices aside, he is one very attractive man. You are 100% correct in that JLo has really turned him into a hot older man.

  12. Jayna says:

    I need to read the entirety of the article and put him talking a lot about Gili into context. I always think that movie is pivotal for him to talk about in the context of talking about his career because that was the beginning of almost destroying his career. His career became a joke/tabloid fodder. His next two movies bombed and were nothings. He started rebuilding his career from the ground up. He took the small role in that Hollywoodland. He got the chance to direct his movie Gone Baby Gone with his brother in it, and the powers to be didn’t really want to use him to sell the movie. He was considered box office poison. I can’t remember if it was they didn’t want his name on the poster, or if it was they didn’t want him in the movie itself. I’m fuzzy on what it was.

    He did a really good job in Tender Bar. He made the movie in his supporting role. When he was on screen with either the kid or his sister, that’s when the movie was at its best. What I couldn’t get over was how handsome he was. He’s so much thinner that you see Ben’s bone structure again.

  13. Izzy says:

    I still see him that way.

  14. Boxy Lady says:

    I only want to say that I love that he referenced that SNL sketch for Bad Idea jeans. It came out in the early 90s I think and is still one of my favorite SNL fake ads of all time.

  15. Diana says:

    Yeah he still is..

  16. Karisma says:

    He talked about gigli because the interview was a retrospective on his career, his movies choice etc and Damon was the one mentioning it. It was a good interview people here are being negative before actually taking the time of reading it

    • Jayna says:

      Exactly. I went back and read the complete interview, and that’s exactly what it was, just as I suspected. I really enjoyed the interview. It was a nice touch at the end talking about his feelings for Matt. With all of these famous people dying lately and hearing outpourings from friends, it was touching to me to read the expression of gratitude for their friendship, which has been there since very young teens.

    • bluhare says:

      Ben Affleck may be a lot of things, but he isn’t an idiot. Watch him on Bill Maher taking down Maher on Islamophobia if you’d like to see a recent example. He has directed some fine movies too.

      • Truthiness says:

        I think he’s a good story teller and director like in the Town and Argo. The script for Good Will Hunting is good. Not sold on him as an actor but I bet it pays some bills. His anxiety with interviews is palpable, he is so out of his comfort zone that it makes me uncomfortable, I wish he could skip selling his movies to the public, it just doesn’t work.

  17. Mcali02 says:

    I don’t see him as complaining, but reflecting on his life. But I have always liked him so probably biased.

  18. nina says:

    You still are, dude, you still are. Just take a quick peek at your last interview slagging off your ex wife and throwing your kids under the bus. An ex who has been kind to you and has never badmouthed you. And kids who are not in the public eye.

    • Al says:

      You 100% didn’t listen to that interview if you think either of those things is true.

      • Lena says:

        +1000% Nina. Despite that he and his Johnny Depp-like internet brigade will try and use the gaslighting technique of you didn’t really hear what your ears heard.

  19. Lena says:

    I read the whole slog right now and it was a slog. It’s true matt was asking him about his former roles but he hardly got through many and none of his directing films because he talks so damn much matt had to leave. Some of it was interesting but if I never hear that “I could sell magazines but not tickets” -hey that could still be true Ben & it’s your own fault. He’s done many long interviews for his campaign and it comes off as one long complaining whine. And he still sounds callow and cavalier so we as a public were right on. It’s true his career was deader than dead and he came back by staying out of the gossip press for a few years and directing but I’d hate to be married to him because he still is carrying 20 y.o. grudges and that’s exhausting.

  20. Cava 24 says:

    George didn’t just blow up his own life to accommodate Ben’s custody arrangements, he blew up the lives of EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO WORKED ON THAT FILM. George could just go back to LA or England or Como or Cabo or wherever afterwards, other people probably had to go straight into another job with no time to rebalance their life. Can you imagine the impact on the other parents on that set trying to find childcare for those hours? And Affleck talking like somehow that’s #goals. I love it when he and Damon and Clooney try to pretend they care about the IATSE strike (which didn’t happen) or conditions on set but they don’t get that accommodating them for something like this screws everyone else over.

    • Twin falls says:

      I mean my god the enormous self-absorption to say out loud in an interview that the film director rescheduled EVERYTHING around Ben’s need to be there for his kids as though he’s the only divorced parent to be working on that or any other film. And lol apparently this is the first film since his divorce he’s needed to show up for his kids? This guy.

      • Cava 24 says:

        Olivia Wilde had her film crew working on Christmas Eve in 2020 because that totally worked for her custody arrangements (one assumes) but what about all the other parents or people who had other family or friends they would have tried to see that day (in whatever way that would have been possible)? And then she was posting all over the place about supporting the IATSE strike. Do any of these people even understand where the rubber meets the road with the things they pretend to support?

    • Merricat says:

      Is she using non-union? Because no one in the union works on Christmas eve.

  21. Kaye says:

    Clearly his agent handed him a thesaurus opened to “C” entries and told him to find and incorporate a few words.

  22. Cara says:

    He’s such an enormous douche. I don’t even think he is remotely attractive anymore. Also, ease up on the bronzer you creepy cry baby.

  23. DeeSea says:

    When I first glanced at the top photo, I was certain that that was Ryan Reynolds. Then I looked again and was certain that it was John Krasinski. Then I read the headline and realized that it’s Ben Affleck. What a journey my brain just went on!

    • sassafras says:

      I pray Ryan Reynolds or John Krasinski never get plastic surgery like some douchey-frat-bros in a midlife crisis. *cough*

      • teatimeiscoming says:

        ryan reynolds has had some plastic surgery. it just happened before he became a household name. one of his first appearances is in an episode of the x files—you wouldn’t recognize him

    • LeenaK says:

      Agree… that does not look like Ben Affleck. I don’t know who that is. Is that a photoshop thing or a plastic surgery thing??

  24. jferber says:

    He’s really showing his age in that header picture. The booze really did a job on his face, even though it was all Jennifer’s fault.

  25. Dora says:

    A Huge ego and an endless midlife crisis! It must be exhausting for a woman to live with him. Wonder why Ana left him. He may speak about her and their movie in his next interview.

  26. Carolnr says:

    Ricky Gervais was right…the only person Ben Affleck has been faithful to is Matt Damon!!!
    JG even had a sense a humor about that crack made about Ben Affleck!
    i think the above commentator was right…Deep Water( if it ever comes out) will be the next film Ben will whine about. If he whines about Ana, i hope she gives it right back to him!

  27. Tammy says:

    Who’s this guy pretending to be Ben affleck on the cover? Not aging well at all.

  28. lena horne says:

    he will be cheating and boozing soon in the public eye.

  29. Justwastingtime says:

    For a guy who allegedly loathes the press, he sure likes to talk about himself a lot. Came here to say that he mostly bores me then and now.

  30. Simmons says:

    That’s not fair. Matt asked the Gigli question. And it’s not like he could circumvent it if somebody else asked him. It was his oldest and best friend.

  31. GGRosey says:

    Well he still gives off fratboy douche vibes in my opinion. Nice try at the rewrite Ben lol

  32. shanaynay says:

    I actually saw him as being a douche bag, and not much has changed. At least that’s my opinion.

  33. Chrissyms says:

    I love his films. The Tender Bar was wonderful and he was wonderful in it. I just wish he would not talk to the press so much lol. I don’t actually think I would like Ben as a person if I knew him. He is very self involved.