X Close

The many failures of Ben Affleck He's learnt to live with disappointment

J Lo doesn't count (Gone Girl)


August 15, 2022   7 mins

It is now generally agreed that there is something grubby about enjoying paparazzi photographs, especially when the subject has mental health issues. But there appears to be an exception for Ben Affleck. A few years ago, when the actor was separating from his wife Jennifer Garner and glumly promoting Batman v Superman, somebody started a Tumblr page called “Ben Affleck Looking Sad“. One image in particular — cigarette in hand, head thrown back, an expression of weary exasperation — has become a meme which roughly translates as “Fuck everything”. Before that, there was a meme called Sad Keanu, but Reeves’s apparent dejection suggested a melancholy profundity whereas Sad Ben was just a middle-aged man with a cigarette and a paunch, attracting an odd mix of sympathy and mockery despite his history of anxiety, depression and alcoholism. Shortly afterwards, Affleck checked into rehab.

Newly married to Jennifer Lopez (we’ll get to that), Affleck turns 50 today. He is of the same generation as Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Ethan Hawke and his friend Matt Damon, but he’s the one whose career best illustrates the ups and downs of modern movie stardom, on and off the screen. He has never enjoyed an imperial phase, when he could do no wrong, nor a real Benaissance, when all is forgiven. Tom Cruise, who recently turned 60, is perhaps the last true movie star due to his somewhat inhuman denial of vulnerability. Affleck, with his candidly acknowledged flaws and regrets, is Cruise’s opposite. I find him fascinating. As Dave Itzkoff wrote in a 2016 New York Times profile, “you may find yourself envying, pitying and disliking him all at once”.

Affleck was born into a working-class family in California and grew up in Massachusetts with his younger brother Casey, who also became an actor. Their mother was a teacher and activist. Their father was a sometime actor, a gambler and an alcoholic. Affleck met Damon at school and the two travelled to auditions together, but their paths diverged. While star student Damon went to Harvard, the bright but distractable Affleck dropped out of the University of Vermont after a few months. Self-consciousness about his class and education has been a nagging drumbeat throughout his career. He always has something to prove, and something to atone for. In a 2016 Buzzfeed profile called “The Unbearable Sadness of Ben Affleck”, Anne-Helen Petersen argued that his defining feature was shame: “about the roles that he’s taken, the relationships he’s made public, his lack of education, his drinking habits, and, most recently, his tattoo”.

Handsome in a brash and bro-ish way, with an oblong head and beefy, six-foot-four physique, Affleck started out playing jerks in School Ties, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Kevin Smith’s Mallrats. He graduated to doofus in Chasing Amy but even his nicer characters weren’t very smart. So when he and Damon broke through in 1997 with their Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting, the impression was that, off screen as well as on, Damon was the star and Affleck the sidekick. I still remember a waspish line from Esquire’s film critic, to the effect that Ben Affleck was put on the earth for the sole purpose of making Matt Damon look like the clever one.

Their next moves compounded that stereotype of art vs commerce. Damon moved into prestige pictures such as Saving Private Ryan and The Talented Mr Ripley, before striking oil with the Bourne franchise. Affleck became an action star in Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Daredevil and The Sum of All Fears, none of which played to his strengths. In a recent interview with Damon, Affleck joked about feeling “deeply jealous and developing a sense of inadequacy and self-loathing” but it wasn’t entirely a joke: he wasn’t getting the same opportunities. “It’s not as if actors are turning down something way better,” he once told me. “It really doesn’t come down to X vs Y so much as X vs nothing.”

In smaller movies, he was once again a braggart (Shakespeare in Love) or an asshole (Boiler Room), which might explain why his brief experiment with romcoms never paid off. Only Roger Michell’s 2002 drama Changing Lanes, in which he clashed with Samuel L Jackson, was a persuasive advertisement for his acting chops. Meanwhile Gwyneth Paltrow, his girlfriend from 1997 to 2000, publicly described him as a “complete knucklehead”, which didn’t help. “What many people don’t know is that he’s crazy smart, but since he doesn’t want that to get awkward, he downplays it,” said David Fincher years later.

Affleck never seemed at ease in blockbusters. If I were ranking his performances, I would put his brilliant comic turn in the DVD commentary for Armageddon in the top five. He’s like a college smart-alec heckling the screen, only he’s actually in the movie. Unfortunately, it’s not a great look if you come across as thinking you’re too good for the movies you’re being paid handsomely to star in. He recalls challenging director Michael Bay on an absurd plot point in that thoroughly absurd film: “He told me to shut the fuck up.” The real joke’s on Affleck for thinking he’s above it all.

All in all, Affleck’s reputation was in a precarious state when he met Jennifer Lopez on the set of Gigli in 2001 and everything went awry. Gigli was the kind of brutal, unqualified flop that might as well have police tape around the scene of the crime. Their next movie together, Jersey Girl, also tanked. The hostile reception was inextricably tied up with the stars’ two-year relationship and the rise of celebrity media at its cruel, carnivorous worst. Affleck later blamed snobbery and racism: even his taste in women was deemed trashy. Whatever the reasons, no relationship could have survived the obsessive scrutiny applied to “Bennifer”. Their wedding was first postponed and then cancelled. The backlash left them both shellshocked. When Affleck bumped into Damon around the release of Gigli he said: “I’m in the worst possible place you can be. I can sell magazines, but not movie tickets.”

GQ called Affleck “the world’s most over-exposed actor”. The Los Angeles Times wrote a long autopsy called “Ben Big’s Fall”. Yet Affleck was never a bad guy. Critics often praised his capacity for self-doubt and self-deprecating humour, so it’s apt that he won his first acting awards for playing George Reeves in 2006’s Hollywoodland, the Sixties Superman actor who was sent flying by fame and brought to earth with a humiliating crash. He’s stayed on good terms with his exes (very good in Lopez’s case) and he’s loyal to his friends. Directors including Linklater and John Frankenheimer have called him one of the nicest actors in the business. He’s always been a great interviewee, providing a clear-eyed running commentary on his career.

Now married to his Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner, Affleck rebounded by moving behind the camera for his directorial debut, 2007’s Gone Baby Gone, starring his brother Casey. “Nobody knew whether he was going to be any good or not, so people were surprised,” Casey told me at the time. “But I wasn’t surprised. I knew that he’s so much smarter and more interesting than the person that’s depicted in the gossip magazines.” Suddenly there were comparisons to Robert Redford, the gold standard for actors turned directors, but Affleck still appeared bruised and wary when I interviewed him. Whenever talk turned to his rough patch, he began nervously flicking a bottle opener. Poker players would call that a giant tell. He still seemed to think that his comeback was fragile.

Affleck directed another satisfying crime thriller, The Town, in 2010 and then Argo in 2012. “We were wrong about Ben Affleck,” wrote the New Yorker’s Anthony Lane. “Few of us, watching Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, could see a way out, or back, for an actor so utterly at the mercy of his own jawline.” But Hollywood’s ambivalence towards him was betrayed by the fact that he was only the fourth person in the history of the Academy Awards to win Best Picture without getting a Best Director nomination, as if Argo’s excellence had nothing to do with its director and star. OK, he wasn’t the ideal choice to play CIA agent Tony Mendez, but who else was going to give him a part like that?

Affleck took a giant step backwards with the snoozy 2016 mob drama Live by Night but he still has a better actor-director track record than George Clooney. He’s shown real flair for action sequences, and a talent for getting great work out of ensemble casts, steering five actors from his first three movies to awards buzz. So it seemed incomprehensible when, in the afterglow of Argo, he signed up to play Batman. Affleck is always torn: while he may have a low opinion of superhero and action movies, he can’t quite let go of stardom. He didn’t seem like he really wanted to be Batman but then he was playing a Bruce Wayne who didn’t want to be Batman anymore either: angry, jaded, bitter. He might have pulled it off with a better director than Zack Snyder. A 2017 alcoholic relapse put paid to a solo Batman movie, which was probably for the best.

Affleck has had bad luck with superheroes. His recent action movies, The Accountant and Triple Frontier, are background noise. He’s also struggled to find sympathetic directors. Unlike his contemporaries, he’s never worked with Scorsese, Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh or the Coen brothers. His movie with Terence Malick, To the Wonder, was one of the director’s weakest. The towering exception, and his best performance to date, was David Fincher’s Gone Girl. With a perfect blend of charm and menace, his Nick Dunne is a fuck-up who could be victim, villain or both. Affleck isn’t playing himself but he’s playing with who people think he is. “I think it’s interesting how we manage the best version of ourselves,” he told the New York Times, “despite our flaws and our weaknesses and our sometime tendencies to do the wrong thing.”

Where does Affleck find a lane these days? The failure of Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, which Affleck co-wrote and appeared in, confirms that the movies he really likes barely exist in cinemas anymore. He was sensitive in The Tender Bar and convincing as a recovering alcoholic in The Way Back but neither move made much impact. At the same time, he’s yet to commit to a prestige TV series in the vein of True Detective or Mare of Easttown. His slate of forthcoming projects looks underwhelming: two more outings as Batman, his eighth Kevin Smith movie, and a sci-fi thriller called Hypnotic. His return to directing with a film about Nike co-starring Damon could go either way. I’d love to see him play a role that fully exploits his talent for exhausted masculinity and gallows humour — Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, perhaps.

At least he seems happy now. More than any other movie star, Affleck is relatably candid about life not working out as planned. He has a consciousness of disappointment and failure that you don’t find anywhere else. Cruise and DiCaprio are too successful, McConaughey too upbeat, Johnny Depp too weird. It makes me want to root for him, which is why I find his recent marriage to Lopez, 20 years after their last attempt, so cheering. We’d all like to believe that life gives us second chances.


Dorian Lynskey is an author, journalist and UnHerd columnist.

Dorianlynskey

Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

27 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Andrew Lewis
Andrew Lewis
2 years ago

Redford the gold standard actor turned director??? Heard of an actor director called Clint Eastwood?

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
2 years ago

Since I never really paid that much attention to Ben Affleck (the only movie of his I’ve watched in the last 10 years was Gone Girl, in which he was indeed very good), I was more than surprised at how happy I was for him to finally sail into the harbour of matrimony with JLo after 20 years. This might be an indicator of a mid life crisis on my part (Bennifer was going on when I was a student and now I’m…older). But on the other hand: when the world is going to h*ll in a handcart in so many ways, who doesn’t love to hear of a happy ending? As the article says, Affleck’s achievement is not his work per se, but the fact that he is so relatable. Who doesn’t have someone in their lives who was “the one who got away”? Don’t you always wonder what could have been or if you’ll get some kind of 2nd chance? Who hasn’t felt a bit disappointed and used by life and felt sad when you think of how you started out being so optimistic? Affleck’s life IS the movie, the accidental reality TV show and for one, I can say: Ben, dear…I CAN RELATE.

polidori redux
polidori redux
2 years ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

Worse than the one that got away, is the one that you turned away out of false pride. I was guilty of that. But heh ho, life must go on.

Martin Bollis
Martin Bollis
2 years ago

The sad life of 6’4” rock star good looking, global beauty bedding, multi millionaire Ben Affleck.

If only I could be so afflicted.

polidori redux
polidori redux
2 years ago
Reply to  Martin Bollis

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be Martin.

Martin Bollis
Martin Bollis
2 years ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Probably not, but oh to try to bear the burden.

Could I try it for a week? Whadya think Jaylo?

Che Padron
Che Padron
2 years ago

He once argued on Real Time with Bill Maher that criticism of Islam is Islamphobic (sic). We’re seriously supposed to feel sorry for this Hollywood elitist while Salman Rushdie is on a ventilator?

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
2 years ago
Reply to  Che Padron

Yeah. He has an obviously inflated idea of his own intellectual powers coupled with woeful ignorance of that of others. Probably from reading too many overly long articles about himself like this one telling him what an underappreciated brilliant guy he is.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago

I just remembered there is a name for this phenomenon: the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Chris N
Chris N
2 years ago
Reply to  Che Padron

I remember that exchange on real time, I thought Ben was trying way too hard to flex some intellectual muscle. It was embarassing

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago

Affleck is good, but I’d have preferred this piece if it had been about Brendan Fraser.

Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary
2 years ago

Decent guy from modest background makes good living in a profession with 95% unemployment. But his schoolmate did better. The end.

Miriam Cotton
Miriam Cotton
2 years ago

Affleck is a very good actor. He was superb in Deep Water which is a terrific film itself. It’s as if directors and Hollywood don’t quite get him or his talents. His acting is subtle and self-effacing. He seems to be ashamed of his good looks and in truth they are something of a hindrance given his own apparent preference for decent material and subject matter. Suspect the best of Affleck is yet to come. Maybe he will move into fifth gear if he can put all the angst behind him.

Last edited 2 years ago by Miriam Cotton
polidori redux
polidori redux
2 years ago

I am not really aware of who Ben Affleck is.
Interesting read even so.

Tony Taylor
Tony Taylor
2 years ago
Reply to  polidori redux

There is probably more to him than Generic American actor, but I can’t be bothered finding out what.

Will James
Will James
2 years ago

I like Ben but I think Casey is the better actor, he was perfect in The Assassination of Jessie James

Tiger Li
Tiger Li
2 years ago
Reply to  Will James

that and Manchester by the sea

Alan Girling
Alan Girling
2 years ago
Reply to  Will James

One of the most underrated movies of all time.

Jorge Espinha
Jorge Espinha
2 years ago

I’ve seen several movies with BA. He isn’t a good actor. Plain and simple. I don’t particularly like Matt Damon but he’s capable of some stellar performances. Not Ben Affleck. There’s nothing there.

Russell Dale
Russell Dale
2 years ago

Thanks for this article- it is rare to read a story that treats an actor like a human being

Mark Lilly
Mark Lilly
2 years ago

And no mention of the car crash tv confrontation with Sam Harris, who calmly and effortlessly exposed his bigotry and stupidity simultaneously?

Fred Paul
Fred Paul
2 years ago

You know, (chomping on ma cigar) I used to like the guy until Argo. North of the border, or in the UK, we don’t like Argo.
If interested in why try this link. https://tinyurl.com/bdea4jzr
If you ever want to make an enemy of an ally, do what Ben did in ARGO.
(Flicking ashes off da cigar)
And ya wanna know why? Cause most Americans use Hollywood movies as historical truth. Nothing is more twisted than American movies based on a true story. Ya want proof? “Affleck directed another satisfying crime thriller, The Town, in 2010 and then Argo in 2012. ” And it goes on without mentioning the historical screwups that really burned other countries. No mention of it at all. Simply put, a great movie.
(Putting out da cigar in the ashtray and looking up at ya)
A country embassy takes a big risk to save a few of your countrymen. All those people who took that risk in a foreign hostile country. A risk that would mean life or death. Their government went to extreme means to keep it secret, taking heat in parliament and working with the Americans. Remember, it’s their people at risk, so Canada took the lead and had the final say. And Canada decided to risk the aftermath of terrorism if they pulled it off. They did this for America. And what did Hollywood do in return?
Would you turn on the person who saved your family members and recount the story that made you the hero? Would you expect their help in the future?
And Canada did. 9/11 the da case of where to land those airliners. Try this
https://tinyurl.com/3fc8mfpr.
Oh wait! Hurrican Katrina.
https://tinyurl.com/mwwrwnr2
Name one time when America came to Canada’s aid.
And you wonder why Bush asked, “Why do they hate us?” before he answered his own question in a style deemed worthy of a Hollywood movie.
Goodbye, Benny Boy.

Jorge Espinha
Jorge Espinha
2 years ago
Reply to  Fred Paul

Being Portuguese I believe I partially understand the filling of being Canadian regarding the vicinity of a military and cultural giant. Spain has more “salero” than Portugal. In the movie “Amistad” the Portuguese slavers spoke Spanish. I don’t mind the slaver bit, it’s an historical fact but we do speak a different language. The Brits have at least two big reasons to be annoyed with Hollywood, “the great escape” and a movie that I don’t remember the name where they claim to have capture the Enigma machine and to have decoded the German cypher. But….we do owe them our protection. Portugal and Canada both, or do you think it’s your Mickey Mouse army that kept the Soviets and now the Russians at bay?

Shelley Crowley
Shelley Crowley
2 years ago
Reply to  Jorge Espinha

I’m a Canadian who is very fond of the U.S. (and who is mortified by my current government). We don’t pull our weight, and that’s a fact – many of us are ashamed of that. It doesn’t change the fact that Argo was a jaw-droppingly brazen example of stolen valour. Ken Taylor (with whom I was lucky enough to be aquainted) was a brave and principled man, as were the rest of the Canadian embassy staff who risked their own lives to shelter and get their American colleagues out of the country. I haven’t forgotten the typically generous response of the American public – Canadians in the US during the “Canadian Caper” as the American press called it couldn’t pay for a meal or a drink – it was really very affecting. Ben Affleck’s film was really a gross misrepresentation of those events, so much so that a voice over had to be added at the end modifying “facts” somewhat. Most of the principals were still alive (including Taylor) and it was pretty revolting to see how they were characterised, and the whoppers that were told. By the way, though I dislike our sitting PM’s disgraceful refusal to properly arm our military (they still use pistols fom the Second World War!!) and to behave like a decent ally, our “mickey mouse army” rose for King and country in both world wars, and didn’t hang back for years while the British, Canadians and Australians fought on without the assistance of the United States. Cheers.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

Ben Affleck? Never even heard of him..

James 0
James 0
2 years ago

Thanks for letting us know.

Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
Mr Sketerzen Bhoto
2 years ago
Reply to  James 0

And Of course he has heard of Ben. People never make that comment when the person isnt famous.