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Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck53 posts

Ben Affleck is an American actor, producer, and director born in 1972 in Berkeley, California. He originally gained fame for his roles in movies such as Dazed and Confused, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, and Dogma. In 1997, Affleck won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. He has also appeared in Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Hollywoodland, State of Play, Changing Lanes, Daredevil, and The Sum of All Fears. In 2013 he won an Academy Award for directing Argo. Affleck is married to actress Jennifer Garner.

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22 Oct, 2004

Surviving Christmas

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Affleck plays advertising executive Drew Latham in the comedy directed by Mike Mitchell. Latham pays a family to let him stay in his childhood home with them for Christmas, causing friction but eventually reuniting them. Co-starring James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O’Hara.

To me, meeting James Gandolfini and getting to know him at such an interesting and important period in both our lives, and the degree to which we bonded and became friends, is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. He was a lovely man, and so tough on himself. Most of the good things in my life have come out of movies that didn’t work very well. That made that movie a great experience, despite what people said about it.

Surviving Christmas - Trailer

Nov 2004

Affleck, Garner dating

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Affleck and Garner are dating. The couple met on the set of the movie Daredevil. They didn’t begin dating until seven months after Affleck and Lopez ended their engagement.

23 May, 2005

Affleck, Garner engaged

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Jennifer+Garner+Engagement RingAffleck and Garner are engaged after nine months of dating, according to a close friend. Affleck buys Garner a $500,000, 4.5-carat Harry Winston engagement ring and proposes on her 33rd birthday.

30 Jun, 2005

Garner, Affleck marry

Marriage0 Comments

affleck-wedding-gallery-2Affleck and Garner get married. The couple has kept quiet about the details of their wedding.

They’re married and they’re expecting their first child.

8 Sep, 2006

Hollywoodland

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Affleck plays actor George Reeves in the drama-biopic directed by Allen Coulter. Shown through the perspective of a private detective investigating his death, Reeves begins an affair with the wife of a studio executive and lands the starring role in the TV series Superman, but becomes dissatisfied with his career and love life. Co-starring Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins. On studying for the role:

When George Reeves was Super-man you had three TV channels, and that show was iconic.

Hollywoodland Trailer

12 Jan, 2007

Smokin’ Aces

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Affleck plays bail bondsman Jack Dupree in the crime comedy directed by Joe Carnahan. A group of bail bondsmen trying to hunt down a crooked Las Vegas Strip magician collide with a group of assassins looking to collect a bounty placed on him by a mob boss. Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, Common, Jason Bateman, Andy García, and Ray Liotta co-star.

The whole week that I shot, I smoked, like, five packs a day. By the time the movie was over, I was so sick of smoking, I just didn’t want to do it anymore, and I quit. I have this celluloid record of the last time I smoked.

Smokin Aces (2006) Official Trailer | Screen Bites

Apr 2009

State Of Play

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Affleck stars as Congressman Stephen Collins in Kevin MacDonald-directed political thriller. Two seemingly unconnected shootings and an apparent suicide draw attention to Collins’s involvement with a private military contractor. Co-stars Russell Crowe, Rachel MacAdams, and Helen Mirren. Affleck modeled the character on Anthony Weiner:

[It] goes to show you how sharp my dramatic instincts were. I was tuned in.

State of Play Trailer [HD]

Aug 2010

Interview magazine

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Affleck interviews Lively for the August edition, discussing her Gossip Girl role and The Town. Affleck:

We met when you came to do The Town, and when you turned up, I was a little taken aback. I was like, “How did you learn this Boston accent? How did you learn all of this stuff?

Lively:

I think it comes from the fact that I never really thought about acting as a child. It wasn’t like, “This is the career that I want to pursue.” So when I first started acting, I was more concerned with just being on a set and all of the woes of that, and I didn’t really know it or understand it as a craft yet. When I saw my first movie, I was fine, but I thought, “Oh, my heavens. It’s not about just standing there on my mark and saying these lines. I need to actually act.”

17 Sep, 2010

The Town

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Affleck directs and stars in the crime thriller based on Chuck Hogan’s novel. Bank robber Doug MacRay and his gang from the Charlestown neighbourhood of Boston take Claire Keesey, played by Rebecca Hall, as a hostage during a bank hit, and the two begin a romance. Doug reveals why he began a life of crime, and tries to protect Claire from his gang, while she protects him from the authorities. Co-starring Jeremy Renner, Slaine, Owen Burke, and Jon Hamm.

A huge part of this was wanting to play the role. I hadn’t had the chance to play a character as interesting as the one Chuck wrote in the book in a long time.

28 Feb, 2012

Samuel Garner Affleck is born

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samuel-affleck-lgAffleck and Garner welcome Samuel Garner Affleck into the world. On having a boy:

Well, we have girls. We know how to do girls. My girls love me. I’m the big guy in the house. So, now I’m not sure.

Oct 2012

Interview magazine

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Affleck talks with Gus Van Sant for the October/November issue of Interview about working with a network of Persian filmmakers, taking the plot of Argo from a Wired magazine article and a book about the hostage crisis, and being advised by the State Department to stay out of Iran:

I wanted to go—just for research—very badly. I really wanted to be accurate. The studio, however, said, “This is a bad idea,” to which I responded, “Well, I’m just going to go as a private person, without any association with the movie or the studio—just as a tourist.” Then I talked to the State Department about it, and they said, “Look, you could go, but there’s a likelihood that people from the government will show up with a camera, shake your hand, take pictures, and say, ‘See, this American supports what we’re doing.’

12 Oct, 2012

Argo

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Ben Afflec directs this movie and plays Mendez. He chronicles the life or death covert operation to rescue six Americans which unfolds behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, the truth of which was unknown to the public for decades. Co-starring Allan Arkin, Victor Garber, Taylor Schilling, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman. About the movie:

Well, the movie is about kind of a sub-story in the larger drama of all the hostages and the whole takeover—Argo is just one small piece of that. The story itself was in Time magazine and is actually pretty well documented, but overall, it got kind of upstaged by the larger issue of the hostages. This incident in Argo happened on, like, Day 78 (The diplomats ultimately left Iran on Day 86), but it was on Day 444 that the hostages were released, so the events that we focus on in the movie were like this glimmer of hope that quickly subsided into the general malaise and depression about the fact that we had these people stuck over there and we couldn’t do anything about it

Argo Official TV Spot 1 [HD]: Ben Affleck Rescues Iranian Hostages With A Crazy Plan

29 Jan, 2013

Vanity Fair cover

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1359496570_emma-stone-ben-affleck-bradley-cooper-lgStone, Affleck, and Cooper appear on the cover of the March 2013 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. They were chosen for the cover because of their accomplishments over the past year. Vanity Fair says:

[The photos are taken in] the house where Robert Duvall, the consigliere to the Corleone family, arranges to have the recalcitrant movie producer who lives there wake up with his prize horse’s head in his bed.

24 Feb, 2013

Wins Oscar

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Producers Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2012 for Argo. Jack Nicholson, and Michelle Obama, via satellite link from Washington, D.C., present the award. Affleck:

You can’t hold grudges. It’s hard but you can’t hold grudges. And it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life, because that’s gonna happen. All that matters is that you gotta get up. Violet, Sam and Sera, I love you; this is for you.

"Argo" winning Best Picture

5 Aug, 2014

Expecting fourth child

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Affleck and Garner are expecting baby number four. The pregnancy comes as a shock to both parents. Garner is four months along.

Ben has been going above and beyond lately. He’s checking up on Jen all the time and surprising her with flowers. Jen thinks this baby could be the key to making her marriage strong again.

12 Aug, 2014

‘He made my dreams come true’

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Affleck thanks Williams for his friendship and his role in Goodwill Hunting, which won Affleck and Matt Damon the Academy Award for Best Writing and launched their film careers:

Heartbroken. Thanks chief—for your friendship and for what you gave the world. Robin had a ton of love in him. He personally did so much for so many people. He made Matt and my dreams come true.

What do you owe a guy who does that? Everything.

May you find peace my friend. #RobinWilliams

26 Sep, 2014

Gone Girl

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In the thriller based on the novel written by Gillian Flynn and directed by David Fincher, Affleck plays the role of Nick Dunne, a man with questionable morals accused of murdering his wife.  Co-starring Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris.

There’s nothing really about this guy or character that I feel connected to personally, except that I have definitely felt as though I was looking at a version of my life that I didn’t recognize through the prism of the media.

Gone Girl | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

1 Oct, 2014

Details cover

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rs_634x862-140917144611-634.ben-affleck-details-magazine-cover-091714Affleck appears on the cover of the October 2014 issue of Details magazine. He talks about why he wanted to play in Gone Girl, rumours about his wife, and counting cards in casinos.

That is a true story. I mean, that took place. I took some time to learn the game and became a decent blackjack player. And once I became decent, the casinos asked me not to play blackjack. I mean, the fact that being good at the game is against the rules at the casinos should tell you something about casinos. There’s a lot of hospitality, backslapping, when they think you’re gonna come in and dump money, and if they think you might leave with some money, it’s like, ‘You know what? Why don’t you try craps or roulette?’