Ben Affleck’s drama-free life

One thing you can count on from Ben Affleck: he is verbose. Which, for anyone who’s writing a profile on him, would probably be much appreciated. When Ben talks, he talks. He talks a LOT in his new GQ cover interview with Zach Baron and almost of all of it is interesting – because he’s willing to share his thoughts, or maybe it’s that he can’t help but share his thoughts. Whether you like him or not, it’s a good quality in a celebrity, resulting in a good read for the audience. Unlike, for example, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s infamous (at least to me) profile on Bradley Cooper for The New York Times back in 2018. He was so seemingly reluctant to participate, the title of the piece was actually “Bradley Cooper is Not Really Into This Profile”, LOL. 

It’s the exactly opposite with Ben and his latest profile in GQ, in support of The Accountant 2 coming out next month. Ben and Zach Baron cover a wide range of topics with Ben answering while wearing multiple hats: industry executive, director, actor, and gossip mainstay. Of course what’s making headlines is what he says about Jennifer Lopez and their divorce. Basically that the reasons their marriage didn’t work out are not nearly as scandalous or even intriguing as it’s been made out to be. In fact he implies that if their breakup were a show, it would be a boring watch. And he also makes it clear that their split had nothing to do with the documentary that accompanied the release of her album last year. That she did not push him over the edge with the way she lives in the spotlight. 

“Part of it was, “Okay, if I’m going to participate in this, I want to try to do it in an honest way and in a way that’s interesting.” Because I thought it was an interesting examination. Like I mentioned to you before, there are a lot of people who I think have handled celebrity more adeptly and more adroitly than I have, Jennifer among them. My temperament is to be a little bit more reserved and private than hers. As happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things. And so I thought, Oh, this is interesting because how do you reconcile that? Because exactly what you said is true. I love and support this person. I believe in them. They’re great. I want people to see that. And I think the thing that I said in that documentary or the piece that they used was where I said, You don’t marry a ship captain and then say, “Well, I don’t like going out in the water.” You’ve got to own what you knew going into any relationship. And I think it’s important to say that wasn’t the cause of some major fracture.”

But of course that was the narrative – that it WAS the “cause of some major fracture”. When news first broke that Bennifer 2.0 was going the way of the OG, the widely held assumption on social media was that he was tired of her public preening, being dragged around in front of the cameras, “so done” with how she performed celebrity; with sources running to Page Six etc etc talking about how relieved he was to be out of that situation and able to live privately. He didn’t do much then to shut that down but then again, there’s plausible deniability here because he can also say that none of those were actually sources who are/were legitimately close to him. 

Ben claims in the interview that his life is “actually pretty drama-free”. I laughed. But this is where her album title might better apply to him: This Is Him… Now. 

As noted, though, the JLo parts are minimal. This is a long interview spanning much of his career and how he’s evolved from struggling actor to the boss of his own studio. Ben’s ideas as an executive with Artists Equity are interesting, from the pay structure to his thoughts on the impact of A.I., particularly the residual streams guarding against the use of likeness for remakes and reboots. 

“…this is where the guilds I think should negotiate for, you should have the ability on any show, whatever, to say: “I want to opt out of being regenerated.” Because what that means is, well, I may not have said that line or done that. I’m not comfortable with that, but also you have to say, if I opt in, I should be compensated alongside everyone else who’s making money from this because I’m okay with it. You should be able to dictate that, and there should be clearly delineated residual structures that compensate people for that.”

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with this, I’m just interested in what kind of a role he may or may not play in these discussions going forward. 

Speaking of roles though, that’s also on the table for discussion – how, after 30 years of acting, he sees himself as an actor, and his insight on the constant comparisons between him and his best friend and business partner, Matt Damon. Ben is not unaware that, probably, the general consensus is that Matt is a better actor and has worked with the big-name directors. Ben doesn’t sound at all resentful or weird about this. Why would he? He won the Best Picture Oscar. But also, he might be a more compelling actor as he’s aged and he actually references a film critic in his description of a character lane that he might be better suited to than Matt: “a tarnished leading man”. 

It's an astute observation of the added dimension that Ben’s celebrity can add to his onscreen performance which is rare, because typically the more you know about an actor, the less you believe him in the role. 

My favourite part of the interview, though, goes back to what I said at the beginning of this post about Ben’s …loquaciousness. (At one point in the GQ profile he mentions that after Good Will Hunting, when everyone assumed he was the dumb friend given their respective characters in the movie, he’d throw big words around in his interviews to try to convince people otherwise – so that one is for him.) And his now legendary (at least online) DVD commentary on Armageddon. Ben Affleck is exactly who you want doing DVD commentary. He should do it for every movie, even the ones he’s not in. 

If you haven’t heard, here’s the part that’s most viral: 

@alltherightmovies

Ben Affleck's great commentary track on ARMAGEDDON where he pulls apart some of the movie's biggest plot holes.

♬ original sound - All The Right Movies - All The Right Movies

He was 25 years old. He was young and stupid and successful and he ran his mouth and he regrets it… but not really. Because as he tells GQ: 

“That is one of the achievements of my career on which I’m willing to pat myself on the back. I believe that may be at least top five all-time DVD commentaries. By the way, nobody said anything to me. I don’t think any of the other people listened to it or gave a f-ck until years later when it was played. And I was kind of shocked and appalled that I went on there and started being like…. I mean, that’s all true. Everything I said was a hundred percent true, but that’s the point. You’re not supposed to go on there and tell all of the truth.”

I’ll let you read the rest of his quote in the full article because it gets funnier, especially when he talks about Billy Bob Thornton. 

Sarah has written a few times lately about how there are too many podcasts and too many celebrity podcasts especially. But the one podcast I would love, I would pay for, is Ben Affleck watching movies. Imagine listening to a pod where Ben Affleck watches Cats. Come on, don’t lie. I know you’d be into this. 

 

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