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Ben Gives Us The Details
Ben Affleck looks seriously sexy on the cover of the November issue of Details. He's been hard at work on the set of He's Just Not That Into You, but next up for Ben is his directorial debut in Gone Baby Gone, which is already getting rave reviews. In the article, Ben gets real about how his life has been affected by the media, and what this movie means for his career. Here are highlights:
- On his relationship with Jennifer Lopez: “It was probably bad for my career. What happens in this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody. I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and [the media] mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that. Then, in concert with some movies that didn’t work…”
- On his career: “I feel like (Gone Baby Gone) is the linchpin for my life. My career. I have a lot riding on it. I want [the film] to work. Badly. I mean, a sh*tty movie comes out on 2,800 screens? I’ve been there and it’s embarrassing..... That’s why there’s something really great about directing—about having authorship over something. If you don’t like this movie, I’m the guy to see. I’m the guy to criticize. I take some measure of comfort in that. It’s fair, at least.”
It sounds like Ben is taking his movie very seriously, which only gives us more faith in his finished project. Besides, even if this film doesn't make his career we bet Ben would be more than happy to go into hibernation with Jen and Violet for a while.
To check out a video of Ben being all cute in his interview, just read more
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ben is a has been. poor man's matt damon. bad career choices. full on tool.
1I love me some Ben!
2I'm probably one of the only ones on here but I really do think he loved JLo and vice versa! I thought they were a pretty smokin couple too!
Anyways he's happy now so Im glad everything worked out for him!
i am glad things worked out for him...although i'm not sure how i feel about him dogging on J.Lo...
3nice.. blame on other people!
4He's not really that cute to me. But I agree w/ him that the media made him seem very negative, which then resulted in loss of sales...
5He is aging well. Oh and, you have had more than a few bad movies, before and after JLo.
6he is so precious! him and mannifer wont last though.
7Sounds like he's still upset about how the media interrupted that relationship. I mean, he's a married man now, he doesn't have to dwell on that past, regardless to if he's asked. He should just move on.
8Wow he looks really hot,know hes' married,but nice to look @
9Ummmm...when you take out a full page ad declaring your love and hold a press conference just about every time you go out on a date -- it's not the media that blew your relationship out of proportion.
10I don't think he is hatin on J LO. I think he regrets all the thoughtless publicity they attracted. He doesn't take himself that seriously, I think he is suprised when all the tabloids did and do. Look at all the misery Tomkat brought on himself with couch jumping and the engagement at the top of the Eiffel Tower - and that has hurt his career too. Ben has always taken the blame for his part in bad movies - but he has to feel a little resentful when a while movie sucks and then it all gets blamed on you. All of his "awful" movies had other people in them.
11As for the poor man's Matt Damon - does anyone remember Matt Damon, skulking around London's West End doing plays cause he didn't get any film offers for about three years - he does. Does anyone remember such bombs as All the pretty Horses and Bagger Vance - he does. And lets not even discuss The Brothers Grimm or Stuck on You.
I'm starting to like him more recently. I'd still take Matt Damon over him any day, but he's not so bad.
12Yea, I don't think it was right to say what h did about Jen...that seems a little king of the castle to me...
13Thank you BA4ever! Every time someone says something about Ben so much worse than Damon, I think of all of Damon's past flops. Bourne is when he truely became a big budget star and he's great in that role. He's also had success with the Ocean's films, but that more for Pitt and Clooney then him. But, just last year, The Good Shepard wasn't a money maker. Don't get me wrong, I love Matt Damon and am not putting him down, but Affleck's not the only one with a few stinkers in his film resume.
I also don't think Ben's blaming JLo and I don't think he saying the relationship ruined his career. It's the ATTENTION the relationsip received that did. He's always said he was to blame for "letting" the paps into the relationship. He obviously learned his lesson because of it.
You have to admit we do get wrapped up in their lives (more than we should) because of tabloids and gossip sites.
14as much as i love j. lopez, i don't think he directly talking bad about him, i mean it's not like he pulled a "matt damon on oprah", when he said he was single but minnie driver did not get that memo when they were dating.
so i don't think he's an *ss or a poor man's matt damon.
15*"i don't think ben is talking bad about her...."
must. proofread. before. posting.
16It's not that Affleck has just had a few stinkers, it's that he's never been that impressive on screen. I like Affleck, but I definitely feel like he's better not headlining a film and/or behind the camera.
Damon, though he has had some bad films, has also had some awesome performances. He was the lead in Good Will Hunting and a lot of the reason the movie was such a success. Notice that though Affleck was on screen, really his work on the screenplay is what got him acclaim, not his acting. Also Damon was excellent in The Talented Mr. Ripley. He shows versatility by proving he can carry an entire action franchise with the Bourne series. These are the reason Damon is said to be the better actor.
Affleck still sounds bitter about what happened with Lopez. He needs to stop answering questions about her and the situation all together. Lopez hasn't mentioned him in years. And IMO the way him and Garner handle the media at red carpets is overkill and unnecessary and has more to do with this bitterness than protecting himself from the paps.
17look..ben still thinks about j-lo
isn't this weird???
18I agree that Ben's better in supporting roles and that Matt is probably the better actor, but Ben has had some good performances, too, and people continually bash him. He got caught up in the big budget movies and over the last few years realized he's not longer interested in that role. I have a feeling we'll seem him in a lot more ensembles or behind the camera.
I think it's silly that he and Jen don't walk red carpets together. At first, I understood, but now it does seem overkill. I mean, if they allow paps to take pics of them doing family things, what's the big deal about walking with your significant other down the carpet. It's not like they don't talk about one another in the interviews.
19"It was PROBABLY bad for my career"??!! Dude, Gigli nearly made you into the male LiLo before you finally snapped out of it.
20he looks great....fatherhood agrees with him
21Well Ben, if you hated all the media attention your relationship with Jlo gave you then why the hell did you put yourself out there with tv and magazine interviews? I think that may have been bad for your career...oh yeah, and the fact that you can't act.
22pretty boy.
23I'm not even going to read the article because it may ruin those photos.
Gone Baby Gone is written by Dennis Lehane, whom I adore as a writer, he has a whole series with the detectives in this story. Looking forward to the movie.
24The interviewer asked Ben the J Lo question.
Ben probably would never bring up Bennifer during an interview. The media will not let this relationship go.
Ben clearly isn't blaming Jennifer Lopez for damaging his career. He is talking about all the over blown media attention their relationship received. The Tabs and Media Shows reported things about Ben and Jennifer Lopez that wasn't true just for sales and ratings. Jennifer Lopez has said this herself in interviews.
The media is doing the same thing to Brad/Angie and Tom/Kate.
The difference between Bennifer and these other couples are both Brad and Tom are in their 40s with 20 years of Hollywood career behind them. Although, Ben Affleck was a known name a few years ago, when Bennifer blow up, Ben was still working on getting leading roles. Which led to Ben making some bad movie choices not J Lo. Ben blames himself.
Brad hasn't opened a movie by himself in years. "Babel" didn't make a lot of money and "Jesse James" had a soft opening (only opened in a few theaters so it wouldn't be called a flop).
Angelina's last movie didn't do to well either. Most media outlets called the Marie Pearl movie a flop.
Is this because they are so over exposed the general public has lost interest in their movies? Or The general public just don't like artistic movies? Or bad movies?
25Does he look unhappy?
26Oh please,
He should have answered NO COMMENT when the interviewer asked him that question. He chose to answer the question. I'd bet money J.LO gets asked the same thing but answers NO COMMENT.
I read the article. He could have waxed poetic about how his new wife and daughter have enhanced his art and his film choices, he could have sidestepped the question by saying that, instead he chose to reminisce about J.LO and that is in poor taste and strange, honestly.
I could care less if a movie is a box office hit. It doesn't IMO make an actor good or not. Affleck is wooden on screen and that's why he's call a poor actor. Matt Damon has flops too, but I think I've already explained why I feel like he's a good actor, in spite of the flops.
27"No comment" sounds pretty good.
Seems like his career was going along pretty good before that relationship (Good acting or not). Or, maybe I should say the way the media covered that relationship.
I guess it is tough to see your whole life go down the drain over a relationship, and then the relationship turns out not to be THE relationship for you.
28Hi Sweetnothings,
I think you have a point about the actors being so over exposed that we don't want to see them in the movies.
That is true in my case. The media may cover certain actors personal lives so much until you just tire of seeing them.
29When that happens, the chance that I may go to the movie is greatly reduced, because I may feel that I have already seen enough of them. Certainly kind of iffy at that point.
Why is he pulling a Brad Pitt and talking about this 3 years down the pike. Hey Bean, we can read. We remember all the sordid details. JLo should have dumped you long before she did. Shame on you for talking about her now.
30I have read the entire Ben Affleck interview / article at Details Magazine site. The interview is 3 pages long. The Bennifer Era only got half of paragraph if that.... 5 sentences out of 3 pages.
Not one time does the interviewer mention Jennifer Lopez's name. The interviewer asked Ben about the Bennifer years of (2002-2004).
Ben is answering the question about how being over exposed damaged his career. He didn't say anything about about J Lo.
The Interviewer clearly knew Ben was uncomfortable talking about Bennifer.
Interviewer worded his question not about the Bennifer Relationship but about that time in Ben's life (The Bennifer Era) is what he called it. The interviewer mentioned Ben winning The CA Poker Tournament in 2004. Ben wasn't with J Lo then.
Ben does mention how He, Violet, and Isabella (Matt's daughter), where all sick with colds at the beginning of the interview.
Not one time does the Interview mentions Jennifer Lopez.
31I guess this is a case of the media not wanting to let Bennifer die.
The media... reporters that is, they don't seem to have that much of an imagination when it comes to things. They like to talk about the same things over and over again. Boring.
In Ben's case, he seemed to have disappeared for a while from the media. I guess they just want to get closure on the situation. Hopefully. Then move on.
32Great for setting the record straight Iris1000. We kind of take a little piece and run with it. I like Ben. I think he is trying to mature.
33he sounds really earnest
34Regardless if he's blaming failed movies on any one person/time period or just plain overexposure, why can't he just say that he made a few bad movie choices? If a movie is good & appeals to the masses, it will be a hit. What is his excuse for any stinkers he participated in, before & after his "overexposure"?
Hopefully, the reporters will stop asking him about that time period, because he just sounds like an ass when he gives those kind of explanations.
I wish him luck in the future, though.
35I read the entire article too, and though he doesn't use Jennifer Lopez's name, he does state "it was probably bad for my career" meaning the relationship with Lopez.He doesn't say the media scrutiny, but the relationship in and of itself as referenced by the it, and thus refers to Lopez.
And that's a ridiculous assumption. Ben Affleck is the only thing standing in the way of his greatness, not some woman he decided, and I repeat, DECIDED to call his own. To the point of pursuing her while she was married to someone else.
36He's gotten hotter.
37I don't think he was bagging out J-lo, just about how crazy the media got about the relationship.
38Ben doesn't blame Jennifer Lopez for damaging his career.
Ben is talking about the intense Media Scrutiny caused by the high profile relationship he was in. That isn't blaming Jennifer Lopez, it is simply the TRUTH.
If there was no relationship then there wouldn't have been a media frenzy to print anything and everything about Ben and Jennifer Lopez.
Jennifer Lopez has said the same statement in many interviews. J Lo's career was damaged just as much by all the over exposure they received. Both Ben and J Lo are both living lower key lives because their media over exposure experience.
Brangelina and Tomkat are going through the same scrutiny right now. Look at all the rumors that are printed about these couples just so the Tabs can put them on their covers. It is not about telling the truth, it is about what makes money and gets ratings. This what Ben is referring to.
39they should let it go.. it's been how long? it was all stupid. it's still stupid. stop.
40Lula 29 you are as bad as the media. I read the article (the whole thing) and he was talking about the media overexposure 2002-2004. Obiously this is why he keeps his relationship now private, which is smart. I know you are dying to see the Afflecks on the red carpet because you are so interested in them but they are smart to keep their relationship private and not a public, overexposed one because everyone accused JLo and Ben of using their relationship for the publicity (which I do not believe was true). He got burned by the media and public, and doesn't want to have a JLo repeat. I for one agree this is a good tactic. I for one am sick, sick, sick of the Jolie Pitts and the TomKats. When both people are famous in a relationship they risk overexposure of it.
41hmmm i dunno what to think of his comments about JLO. why are him and shiddy still talking about her????
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