2003 was a bad year for Ben Affleck. His life had become a circus thanks to his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, and he had two major bombs in theaters: Gigli and Daredevil. He got through it, but it wasn’t easy.
In the new issue of Details magazine he says, ”In our culture, we get very much into short-handing people. And I got shorthanded as That Guy: Jennifer Lopez, movies bombed, therefore he must be a sort of thoughtless dilettante, solipsistic consumer blah blah blah.
“It’s hard to shake those sort of narratives. If you were looking at that one-liner on me in 2003, which was definitely the annus horribilis …I don’t know what the lesson is, except that you just have to find your compass.”
Affleck also reveals how his co-star in The Town, Blake Lively, made him feel OLD. The movie was filmed in Boston, where Ben and Matt Damon grew up. And one day Ben was showing Blake around the area.
He says, “I’d tour the actors around Boston. I was with Blake, and I saw Matt’s childhood home. And I said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s where Matt grew up.’
“[Blake] said, ‘Who?’ And I said, ‘Matt Damon. And she said, ‘Oh my God! You know Jason Bourne?!’
“And I thought, ‘There it is. The first age of people who are adults who missed the whole Matt-and-Ben propaganda campaign!’ Mostly, it just made me feel old.”
Ben is doing much better these days as an actor-director. The next movie in which he pulls double duty, Argo, hits theaters next month.
