Ben Affleck's rising star encounters large asteroid

They were two young actors out for dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant harmless enough, apparently, but not if you're Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, which they were. The paparazzi gathered outside the restaurant and, as the couple emerged, tried their best to create an incident and generate the kind of angry, violent photos the tabloids love. One photographer even yelled an insult about Affleck's mother. Not so long ago, Affleck like his good buddy Matt Damon was the kind of tough street kid they depicted in their Oscar-winning screenplay for "Good Will Hunting" (1997). Reflexively, his fists clenched. "When that photographer attacked my mother, I was in a rage," he recalls. "I literally wanted to kill.

"I mean, my mother? My mother is a saint," he adds. "And where I grew up, if someone talked about your mother, it could only be followed by fists." But Oscar winners have to take such jibes, along with cracks about his name, Paltrow's bust size or whatever else comes his way.

"The rules have changed," says the 26-year-old Affleck, a broad-shouldered hunk in jeans and a sweater. "I'd be lying if I didn't say it's hard to get acclimated in Hollywood. I'm going, `Wait a minute. I just can't smack this guy?' " On an early Sunday morning on a sun-splashed patio at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Ray, Calif., Affleck is still adjusting to his newfound stardom. "I'd be an idiot to complain," he admits. "I take responsibility for what I am. I am certainly willing to benefit from all the good things that have come my way I'd feel a little bit disingenuous to start kvetching about the minor disadvantages." The heat should only intensify when "Armageddon" opens Wednesday. Affleck is cast as a young oil-rig driller who believe it or not is sent into space with a team aiming to blow up an asteroid which is on a crash course with the Earth. Along the way, he also enjoys a romantic subplot with Liv Tyler, who plays the daughter of the space mission's commanding officer (Bruce Willis). Affleck says he had trouble with the romantic scenes. "We've known each other a long time," he says of Tyler. "It's like kissing your younger sister."

Affleck has been a stalwart of the independent-film scene, most notably as the lead in Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy" (1997). What's he doing in a $140 million Bruce Willis movie? "It sounds like it might be selling out," he admits. "The real irony is that I was never the guy who wanted to do indie films I was the guy who grew up going to the multiplex to see `Star Wars' (1977), `Back to the Future' (1985) and Indiana Jones. "You would never catch me seeing some boring foreign number or an art film," he insists. "Those movies were alien to me I was Mainstream Man. So doing `Armageddon' felt like doing a real movie to me." Both aspects of his career will be on view in future films. Affleck recently shot Smith's new film "Dogma," due out next year, with himself and Damon as fallen angels. Also due next year is "Shakespeare in Love," casting Affleck opposite Paltrow. "That movie has given Bruce Willis no shortage of amusement," Affleck says, laughing. "Bruce has yelled at me, `What are you doing wearing tights in a movie? I can't believe you.' He thinks I'm just ruining everything he couldn't be more disappointed in me."

This summer Affleck will start filming a romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock, "Forces of Nature." Oh, yes, he and Damon are also working on a new script for Miramax. "We'll be writing some stuff this summer," he says. "I'm going to go to Italy, where Matty's doing a movie. In our spare time, we'll write. "I know it sounds bad," he adds, smirking. "Like I need an excuse to go to Italy so I called up Miramax and said, `Send a ticket. We're writing. Don't worry. Cover expenses. We're really working.' " As for rumors that he's jealous of Damon's ascent to leading-man stardom, Affleck says they're so much hot air. "I've heard, `Why did you write a Matt Damon vehicle with "Good Will"? Are you nuts?' " Affleck says. "People ask, `Shouldn't you have insisted on writing yourself a bigger role?' "That perception is pretty funny to me," he says, "because I was always very happy with my role in `Good Will.' I got to be funny and I got to have an emotional scene."

Their next film may find Affleck as the hero, Damon in a supporting role. "The plan was that in the next movie I would be the lead," he says. "Now I don't know. We don't want to be self-conscious about what is fair. It's still about telling a good story." The two writer/actors grew up together in Central Square, the non-affluent part of Cambridge, Mass. "Our mothers are both teachers. There was this common thing," Damon says in a separate interview. "The minute I met Ben, you just knew it was a lifelong friend. There's a loyalty about him. He's the guy you call in the middle of the night when there's a crisis." They got agents and made some television commercials together, and got turned down for lots of movies. Both were cast, however, in small roles in "School Ties" (1992), which led Affleck to "Dazed and Confused" (1993). After lackluster college attempts in Vermont and California and a break-up with his girlfriend, Affleck went to stay with Damon and another friend in a small, two-bedroom house in Los Angeles. There, frustrated at the lack of opportunities to act, they began work on "Good Will Hunting." A long, twisting road finally brought the project to Miramax, then to movie screens and finally to Oscar night, where co-star Robin Williams captured a Best Supporting Actor statue while Affleck and Damon took the Best Original Screenplay award. Luckily for Affleck, he and Damon were given separate statues. "I would have had to duke it out with him in the parking lot if that wasn't the case," he jokes.

The other big thing in his recent life is Paltrow, but Affleck says the two have agreed not to discuss their relationship in the press. It may seem futile, but he insists it can work. "I know some celebs who are couples and they manage very successfully to keep themselves out of the paper," the actor says. "They go to restaurants where the press doesn't hang out. You can make it work if you keep the world out of it." That the world actually cares whom he is dating still amazes him, Affleck admits. "All of this really hasn't sunk in," he says. "I'm actually really afraid now. "With `Good Will Hunting,' I didn't expect anything going in," he recalls. "I didn't expect it to hit or be such a publicity machine. I didn't expect to win an Oscar. Now I am ripe for disappointment. "You'd have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to be acutely aware of the dynamic that goes on with celebrities and publicity," Affleck adds. "People are built up. Then it's not so much fun holding them up there anymore. People can't wait to take shots. "I'm ready for it."