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A NEW ROLE FOR BIG BEN
The Hollywood actor is reinventing his career with an acclaimed directing debut Gone Baby Gone, released in UK cinemas recently. He talks to us about surviving tabloid gossip and insists hes very different from his public persona.
Ben Affleck proves that even the crash and burn of a high profile Hollywood romance can have a silver lining.
At the height of his tabloid-blazing relationship with Jennifer Lopez four years ago, he started writing a film script of Dennis Lehanes disturbing novel Gone Baby Gone.
Set in his native Boston in the US, its a harrowing thriller about the search for a missing four-year-old girl and the troubled people it involves.
Initially he thought of it as a vehicle for Lopez, but instead it has become an acclaimed directing debut for the 35-year-old actor.
In the decade since he won a Best Screenplay Oscar with pal Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting, Ben has gone from bright newcomer to blockbuster star to tabloid fodder. It has been a bruising rise and fall that would have sunk a less-talented actor.
But the surprising thing about Ben Affleck, considering his bad choices like Gigli, is how articulate and bright he is.
Multi-lingual in Spanish and French, his all-American good looks are matched by genuine depth and hes matter-of-fact about what has happened to his career.
The first half of the media cycle was fascination, the second half was rejection. But what I never realised is that the public dont end up blaming the magazines that write every insane, untrue story.
While depicting the tragedy of 1950s television Superman George Reeves in 2006 film Hollywoodland went some way to rejuvenating his acting career, Gone Baby Gone has really turned heads.
It stars Bens younger brother Casey as dogged private eye Patrick Kenzie who refuses to give up on looking for the missing child. Set in the gritty world of working-class Boston, its full of tough miscreants and losers.
I just felt that maybe this was a way to have a sense of authorship about what I was doing without having to stick my face out there, says Ben about sitting in the directors chair.
Ben has gone back to his roots to get a handle on his career again. I wanted to do a movie set in Boston. I thought it would make me feel more secure because its a place I know better than anywhere. I wanted to show the city the way I know it and to say something personal.
He went to great lengths to get real people to populate his film. We ended up in a lot of bars at 9am, a time when you get a particular type of person in a bar, he says.
However, plans to show the film at the London Film Festival last October were put on hold by Disney because of the ongoing McCann case.
We just thought it was better to err on the side of discretion and good taste, says Ben. Im proud to be associated with a company that made a decision I thought was respectful.
Casting his brother, who stars alongside Michelle Monaghan, was also an issue, Ben admits. I wasnt just going to leverage my one shot as a director on nepotism, that would be foolish. I made this choice, as I think its clear to anyone now, on the fact that hes obviously the right guy for the role.
Being a father of a young daughter (with actress wife Jennifer Garner) changed some of his views of the moral dilemmas posed by the book. He started writing the script before he became a father to Violet, now two.
Before I had her, I had an intellectual understanding of what would happen to a parent to have a child taken away. But once I had a child myself, I understood it emotionally. Thats a big difference, he says.
Ben will return to acting in the romance comedy Hes Just Not That Into You with Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, due for release later this year.
He counts himself very lucky in a business where many people fall by the wayside. He may have taken a hefty paycut in Hollywood terms from his $12-million-plus-per-film heyday, but he is still paid a lot of money doing what he loves.
I have really very little to feel sorry for myself about. People have legitimate hardships, so its kind of petty for me to sit around ruminating about little dents in what has been a very fortunate life so far.
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