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Ben Affleck Interview
BEN ADDICTION
Three years is a long time in Hollywood - just Ask Ben Affleck.
Back in 1997 this tall, likeable 26-year-old was appearing in low budget independent productions like Chasing Amy.
Then he just happened to write the Oscar-winning hit Good Will Hunting with best friend Matt Damon. What followed were supporting roles in the big budget blockbuster Armageddon and the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love.
Now he has joined the ranks of the mainstream leading men with a starring role opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature.
Our man of the moment even had a highly publicised fling with Hollywood's golden girl of the moment, Gwyneth Paltrow, although that liaison ended earlier this year.
And he's still only 26.
Along the way, Affleck's acting fees have soared to the level where he is now getting the equivalent of the entire budget of the small films he started out in.
And he doesn't apologise for grabbing the big money offers while he is still a hot property.
"No actor forgets the times he couldn't get a job. I think everyone doing this operates from that fear. You don't want that momentum to stop when you get it," he says.
But just to prove he hasn't been completely seduced by the multi-million dollar fees, he has gone back to his indie roots for forthcoming projects. He will be part of the ensemble cast for the New Year's Eve comedy 200 Cigarettes and will play a renegade angel in Kevin Smith's controversial religious comedy Dogma. He has also announced plans to make a 2 million dollar romantic comedy called The Third Wheel with, once again, Matt Damon.
His motto is to keep surprising people. "One of the things that Gwyneth taught me is to maintain a level of work where interesting people you like want to work with you. You do that by doing things that are interesting, not by playing into some expectation."
Forces of Nature is Affleck's response to the inevitable studio pressure to do a big budget romantic comedy. He plays a groom-to-be whose attempts to get to his wedding are complicated by an attractive and free-spirited travelling companion (Bullock) and a hurricane.
"The guy I play is bewildered and indecisive, it was a chance to lighten things up with an un-vain performance.
"I like the fact this raises issues close to my heart, questions about commitment and risk and certainty."
Sandra Bullock believes her co-star is appealing because while he is good looking and physically strong, he can also appear vulnerable.
"Ben doesn't get embarrassed about showing something affects him. You can see it in his face, which I think women like. For men he's so big, but he can also be a total goof. He's not just a handsome guy sucking in his cheeks, there's a lot going on in his head."
Now Affleck divides his time between his apartments in Los Angeles and New York - and he admits it has been a spectacular transition from struggling actor sleeping on friends' floors to Hollywood star.
"Anybody who says there's no such thing as professional jealousy in this business is a liar. But I always wished people the best. Maybe I'm naive, but I felt if I just kept plugging away, it would work out for me too."
He got the acting bug early while growing up in the middle class suburbs of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had his first acting job at the age of eight on public service television. Matt Damon lived just down the road and the two were friends. Affleck later studied drama and then headed for California where he and Matt Damon agreed that whoever was successful first would help the other one out. His first film role was in 1992 in School Ties, followed by Dazed and Confused.
His mother Chris, a teacher, is still one of Affleck's closest advisors. She was worried about all the fame and money that comes with making it in movies, but she believes her son is level-headed enough to cope.
Affleck himself is certainly not worried about being too close to Hollywood.
"It wasn't my childhood fantasy to work with Truffaut or be in obscure films. I like Midnight Run better than I like The Bicycle Thief. It was films like Die Hard and Bladerunner that made me want to be an actor."
What does worry him is losing touch with ordinary life because of the trappings of film stardom.
"It concerns me that you can become cut off from real life. I've seen it happen with others, you hear about how their lives changed. You see their work and it's less and less about real life because they stop having real experiences to draw on.
"There's also a danger to your own personality if you surround yourself with people who just want to be near you for sycophantic reasons or because they think it makes them look cool."
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