Ben Affleck has come a long way, and Matt Damon has been there through it all.
This week, Affleck is on the new cover of Entertainment Weekly, and in the issue, he sits down to be interviewed by his “Last Duel” co-writer, co-star and longtime friend.
Candidly talking about the ups and downs of his career, Affleck admits that sometimes compliments about his current success come across as backhanded.
“Sometimes people will go ‘You know, you’ve really gotten better as you’ve gotten older,’ which sometimes feels like, ‘You’re not that bad-looking in person!'” he says. “I have some performances as a younger person that I really liked. I knew [‘Good Will Hunting”s] Chuck. I felt affinity for Ned in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and commented with the character in ‘Chasing Amy’.”
He adds of some of the lower points in his career, “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 doing “Surviving Chistmas”.’ Part of our fates are controlled by the opportunities we have in terms of material and directors.”
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Despite being regularly cast as a typical Hollywood leading man, Affleck reveals that he has long been uncomfortable in that role.
“I’ve always felt more comfortable playing characters that weren’t the traditional kind of protagonist,” he says. “You do this much better than I do, and it’s not a backhanded compliment because you find a way to make characters interesting and flawed and real.”
The actor also opens up about his most recent low point, during the production of 2017’s “Justice League”.
“I had a really negative experience around ‘Justice League’ for a lot of different reasons. Not blaming anybody, there’s a lot of things that happened. But really what it was is that I wasn’t happy. I didn’t like being there. I didn’t think it was interesting. And then some really s***ty things, awful things happened,” he says. “But that’s when I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that anymore.’ In fact I talked to you about it and you were a principal influence on that decision. I want to do things that would bring me joy. Then we went and did ‘The Last Duel’ and I had fun every day on that movie. I wasn’t the star, I wasn’t likeable. I was a villain. I wasn’t all the things I thought I was supposed to be when I started out, and yet it was a wonderful experience.”
“The Last Duel” ended up flopping in theatres, but has found a second life on streaming, which prompts Affleck to muse about the future of movies.
“I think movies in theatres are going to become more expensive, event-ized. They’re mostly going to be for younger people, and mostly about ‘Hey, I’m so into the Marvel Universe, I can’t wait to see what happens next.’ And there’ll be 40 movies a year theatrically, probably, all IP, sequel, animated,” he explains. “‘The Last Duel’ really clinched it for me. I’ve had bad movies that didn’t work and I didn’t blink. I know why people didn’t go, because they weren’t good. But I liked what we did. I like what we had to say. I’m really proud of it. So I was really confused. And then to see that it did well on streaming, I thought, Well, there you go. That’s where the audience is.”
Looking back on “Good Will Hunting”, Affleck remembers getting to meet and work with Robin Williams, who won an Oscar for his performance in the film.
“I think Francis [Ford Coppola] vouched for me with Robin. God, Robin was a wonderful guy. And funny!” he says. “It was the first time I ever got to hang out with somebody that talented and that famous. I remember walking down the streets of Boston with him, he had done ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ and ‘Awakenings’ and ‘Fisher King’ and all that. And all everybody in Boston would say was ‘Nanu, nanu.'”
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Talking about “Armageddon”, the actor says, “It’s funny because that’s the one movie of mine that my kids have watched and they’ll kind of all admit to liking, even though they relentlessly mock it and me. But they had fun, you know what I mean? They won’t even watch ‘The Town’. So there you have it.”
Another famous flop for Affleck was the 2003 comedy “Gigli”, co-starring girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
“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,” he says. “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.”
Closing out the conversation, Affleck tells Damon, “This friendship has been essential and defining and so important to me in my life. Your support is so profoundly meaningful to me, and I don’t think I would have been able to be successful without it.”
“We’re each a fan club of one for the other. All right, man. I love you,” Damon responds, to which Affleck says, “I love you, buddy.”
