Ben-Fan Articles

Ben Affleck, the man and the actor Cool Hand, June 2004, By MARGARET GARDINER Ben Affleck, the man and the actor, has tried out many roles. His latest rendition of himself is cool, hip, self-deprecating and earnest. One gets the feeling he has finally arrived at who he will be as a man. Who is Ben Affleck? He has been so many people, the head reels. The metrosexual half of the infamous Beniffer. The golden boy of the Gwyn and Ben phase. The rising star of Matt and Ben, the Oscar-winning wonder boys who won a statue for their very first screenplay. Interesting thing is that each of these larger than life images of Ben as the other half of a famous coupling is tempered by Ben as the wounded loner. Ben going into rehab. Ben being killed by the critics for his latest flop, Ben on talk shows joking about his most recent failure, saying himself what others were whispering in the shadows. For instance, on being nominated for a Razzie - the non-Oscar for movies that stink - Ben laughs, "We swept the Razzies!" He exudes false pride. "We swept them for Pearl Harbor too! I'm a veteran of the Razzies!" It's this kind of optimistic attitude that caused Paycheck co-star Uma Thurman to say, "Ben carries himself with a lot of humor and grace." Understanding Ben Affleck is all about his childhood. His father, Timothy, a former actor, underwent treatment for alcohol addiction. His parents divorced in 1984 and he and brother Casey, three years his junior and also an actor, were raised by his teacher mother. It could not have been easy. When Ben becomes earnest his soft chocolate eyes look off to the distance and his jaw becomes a little firmer. "My mother is still one of my role models. She's remarkable and extremely smart. After my father left she gave herself completely to raising us. I didn't know there were other families who weren't like us. That there were parents who weren't singularly devoted to doing what's best for the kids." On things that matter, the ever-ready smile disappears and something happens in his eyes. "Even to the point with other kids, when you're nine or 10, saying, 'What do you mean your mom doesn't come home until two in the morning?' I didn't understand it and she worked really, really hard." Factor in that the debonair movie star of today vas nowhere in sight. A late bloomer, he was 5 feet, 2 inches, until his junior year in high school. "I was really short and very young-looking." It is no wonder that he hooked up with Matt Damon, himself a child of divorce. The two had dreams of breaking into the big time. Although reluctant to let her son become an actor, his mother Chris, who had hopes that her eldest would follow in her footsteps or "become a lawyer - anything that was stable," finally allowed her son to appear in a PBS documentary at age 8. Six years later Ben started working earnestly in front of the camera, often in TV movies. With his career picking up in his late teens, Ben gambled on the momentum and ditched Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California, when he was offered a role in School Ties, figuring that working in the field of his dreams was the way to go. It paid off. In 1993 he was cast in Dazed and Confused, enticing pal Matt to chuck college too. But the Boston boys chafed at the underdeveloped roles they were offered. Between auditions they set about creating Good Will Hunting. Legend has it they let lady luck decide who would get to play the lead, tossing a coin that came down with Matt in the role of the brilliant scholar, misunderstood and hiding his ability behind acting out. When you meet the boys you have to wonder which one the lead character is based on. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Ben. When I first met him in 1999, he was in the form of the rebel, circa 1950s - maybe Marlon Brando or Jimmy Dean. His expression was distant, his T-shirt white and tight, his jeans loose and the black-leather jacket completed the homage. He rode his chair on two legs, leaning back smoking, trying to be disinterested but his quick wit kept leaking out of him. He was surfing the crest of sudden fame, an Oscar under his belt, Armageddon raking in millions, Shakespeare in Love getting critical acclaim and romance with Gwyneth blazed across the world's headlines. He came across as very young, and trying out a persona that wasn't really his. Fast-forward a few years and the Ben who promoted Reindeer Games was your preppy collegiate in khakis, with a polite, can-do attitude. Earnest, intelligent and so perfectly behaved, he brought to mind a slightly boring future husband of some suburban soccer mom. Daredevil found him in the throes of superstardom, attached to diva deluxe J-Lo. Now here was a totally groomed hottie. Stepping straight from the pages of GQ, he wore a short T-shirt over a long one that sculpted his muscles. His humor was back in evidence, though stretched thin by the constant media hype of his personal life. A year later he's a conglomerate of each version I've seen. Cool, hip, self-deprecating and earnest. One gets the feeling he may have arrived at who he will be as a man. Nothing he has done on screen approaches Ben Affleck the person. He's big. Tall and wide, with matinee-idol good looks. There's the dimple in his chin that is visible even with the two-day growth of pre-Jen days. His jaw is square. He jokes that he thinks he looks like Frankenstein on the screen. He's intelligent. I've heard him give an insightful off-the-cuff analysis of tensions in the Middle East. He's funny, and quite prepared to play the ham. The scene in the infamous Gigli where he poses in front of the mirror talking to himself: "Who's the bull?" That's Ben in person. He'll do anything for the punch line, no ego involved. I've watched him pose with 60 seniors, one at a time, giving each an individual funny line and making them feel special. A girl asks for a kiss, he poses, lips pressed against her cheek, a pretend idyllic expression fostered on his face. One old woman is so diminutive, he drops on his knee to bring himself in line with her head, so they can have their photo taken. Then he kisses her too. These are the images of Ben. So if all of this is true, then how has his name become a dirty word? We forget he was only 24 when he got thrust into the limelight. What we have seen is a young man showered with the brittle attention of fame, while living out the fantasies most boys only dream of. His big mistake was letting the press document his every move. That, and a penchant for high-profile romances. At the height of his Ben and Jen fame, Matt told me, "Ben is a very normal person. I've known him for over 23 years. It bothers him that things have spun so out of control." Ben told his friend, "I'm sick of myself. I don't want to see another picture of myself, but I'm not in control of who puts what on magazines." Affleck wants to be liked, he wants to be a good boy, but he cannot help himself. His eyes slide over women as though he's assessing a piece of art, noting beauty with appreciation. He oscillates between the high expectations his mother has set for him, the intelligence and the stability, and the part that must come from his dad - the seduction of maybe forgetting where the line lies and dipping into the fun side a little too often. This is no doubt what caused him to check himself into Promises, a rehabilitation facility for the treatment of alcohol abuse in 2001. So no one was surprised when the headlines hit of Ben being caught in a strip joint a few months before his wedding to Jennifer Lopez was cancelled in 2003. Everyone knew that the relationship was in trouble when he and Jen promoted Gigli. (They'd become engaged in 2002 with Jennifer's signature barely dry on her divorce papers from background dancer Chris Judd.) She walked up one side of the room, while he exited down the other. He was playful and flattering with the women - you get the feeling he would be that way with anyone - she was supervigilant in her dialogue. How could someone so free and easy be with someone so very controlled? No doubt their shared middle-class backgrounds worked. Jen can be very warm, but her mind is never turned off. He is like a puppy dog, waiting for a hand to stroke him. And he is ambitious. He's not content to sit back and act. He has business designs. No doubt Jen's multimedia approach appealed to his entrepreneurial style. But again, she is calculated, he is a gambler. His career choices also reflect his adventurous style. He loves big action blockbusters, like Pearl Harbor, the movie that was supposed to raise him to Harrison Ford status; The Sum of All Fears, where he took over the Jack Ryan franchise; as well as his attempt to create his own sequel moneymaker, Daredevil, that instead created a franchise for Alias star Jennifer Garner, who reprises her role in Elektra later this year. Lately his status as a personality seems to have overshadowed him as an actor. Once again Damon provides insight. "For any movie that doesn't work, he'll be the first person to explain why. He's such fun to go to a movie with because no matter how bad it is he'll say, 'Here's what they could've done to fix it.' And 10 minutes later you'll be dying to see that movie. I've read scripts that I've passed on and Ben's taken them and I call and say, 'What the hell are you doing?' He'll go, 'Yes, there's a problem with this, this and this, and here's how you fix it." Then he makes the movie but they won't allow him to fix it. It's that incurable optimism in him that's landed him in a pinch. It's what will make him a great director one day. The more control he has over a project the better it is." In recent months much has been made of his frequent appearances at gambling tables. He takes a deep breath, his lids lowering slightly as though going on overdrive. "People always mention my poker playing because they know I quit drinking. People sometimes think that if someone quits drinking they are prone to be swept up in bad behavior. I don't feel it's a big issue for me. I play for charity, I like to play poker with my friends - I have for a long time. I don't play for gigantic amounts of money, but it becomes written about and becomes 'the story.' When I went shopping with Jennifer the headlines were, 'This is a shopping addiction!"' His mouth moves up in an ironic smile. "It's not like I'm out there buying vacuum cleaners at 12:30 at night!" "One of the interesting things about poker," says the superbuffed Ben, who has toned down the metrosexual grooming since splitting with J-Lo, "is that it is not about stakes, so much as the psychological aspects that make it a very fun game. It's about being an actor and also about being able to read other people, which is really interesting." Being Ben he's unable to leave the line there. "Just because I've given up drinking doesn't mean I have to live in a convent." Now he gives a full, movie-star grin, showing tiny, perfectly even teeth, "A man's gotta live!" Given all the upheaval of the last eight years, Ben insists, and looks like, that he's "in a good place in life. Things have quieted down in a nice way." That doesn't mean he has any more insight into women. The man who has dated two of this generation's It girls finally admits, "Women are baffling to me. I find them a total mystery. Maybe someone can help me figure it out as I'm not doing too well here." He and Jennifer Lopez remain friends. "We talk often." What does intimidate him is the idea of becoming a father. "It's scary, but something I'd like to do. People say they get gripped by the fear of not wanting to repeat the same mistakes. It's a time where you'd look most closely at your own faults." He laughs, almost embarrassed by the admission. "That would be my fear."

Ben Affleck, the man and the actor