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53 postsBen 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.
Affleck plays the convict Rudy in the thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. After his release from prison, Rudy impersonates his cellmate to sleep with his girlfriend, but is dragged into a bizarre crime spree. Co-starring Charlize Theron, Gary Sinise, James Frain, Donal Logue, and Danny Trejo. Theron:
Everywhere I’m going I see this headline: Charlize is method, Ben a very giving actor
Affleck plays Jim Young in the Ben Younger-directed crime drama. A senior broker at the firm J. T. Marlin, Young coaches new recruits to make millions in a cold-calling scheme that sells pump-and-dump stocks to investors. Comparing the film with Glengarry Glenn Ross:
Glengarry is the all-time epic greatest. But that was fun. Yeah, Ben Younger directed it. I had a really great time. I work now with Jennifer Todd, who was a producer on that movie … And you know, it was just, like really fun.
Affleck co-stars in the comedy written and directed by Kevin Smith, playing the angel Bartleby alongside Matt Damon as Loki. A drunken Loki resigns as the angel of death, and the two are exiled to Wisconsin. Their attempts to reenter heaven are thwarted by God, played by Alanis Morrissette. The ensemble cast includes Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Bud Cort, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, George Carlin, Janeane Garofalo, and Jason Mewes. Smith says the film helped Affleck’s career:
I’m not saying I made Ben Affleck who he is today … but I made Mallrats with him, Chasing Amy, Dogma.
Affleck plays Ned Alleyn in the John Madden romantic comedy, accepting the role of Mercutio in a Shakespeare play, only to find that the character dies. Co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, and Judi Dench.
[Alleyn] is sort of the Tom Cruise of his day. In terms of Shakespeare’s theater, you have to have Ned in your play.
Affleck stars in the Michael Bay-directed disaster epic as A. J. Frost, a member of a team of oil drillers sent into space to prevent an asteroid striking earth. After proving himself in space, A. J. is saved from a suicide mission by Harry Stamper, played by Bruce Willis, and marries Stamper’s daughter Grace, Liv Tyler. Billy Bob Thornton, Will Patton and Steve Buscemi co-star. On shooting an emotional scene with Willis:
People always shy away from showing all that much emotion. They’re afraid that if you get really upset that somehow that means you’re not cool or you’re not sufficiently heroic, but I thought Bruce is the hero, really, so I could have the opportunity to do that, and I thought why not.
Affleck and Damon talk to Interview about Good Will Hunting, growing up together, and their relationship:
Matt and I had identical interests, so whether we ended up successful or making hot dogs at Dodgers games, we knew we’d end up doing the same sort of thing.
Affleck co-stars as Chuckie Sullivan in the Gus Van Sant-directed Boston location drama, based on a screenplay he wrote with Matt Damon, who plays Will Hunting. As Will attempts to find himself, Chuckie encourages him to use his intellectual talents and mathematical ability to seek a better life. He tells Will that it is an insult to waste his intelligence as a university janitor and says that although they are best friends, he hopes one day he will stop by Will’s apartment for a beer and he will no longer be there. Also starring Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Stellen Skarsgard, Cole Hauser, and Casey Affleck. On shooting in Boston:
It was enormously satisfying, particularly — even this context to the screenplay, it was really satisfying to write locations that you know, places that you know, people that you know. And then to go back and shoot there was really rewarding. We were able to get people to work there, family and friends would stop by the set, it was a really nice experience, it was really just — it was kinda, the local boys made good.
Affleck stars as comic book artist Holden McNeil in the romantic comedy directed by Kevin Smith. Holden begins a relationship with a gay girl, but his feelings for her place his love life, friendship and comic books career at risk. Co-starring Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith.
One of the best experiences I’ve had. We all lived in Kevin Smith’s house. We rehearsed it like a play. We shot on 16 millimeter. I got the chance to do the kind of acting I had never done before. Not knowing if anyone would ever see this cheap movie was freeing. It didn’t seem like a movie, more like people running around with a video camera.
Affleck plays Shannon, the manager of the mall’s Fashionable Male outlet in Mallrats. Throughout the Kevin Smith-directed comedy, he frequently clashes with Brody (Jason Lee) and TS Quint (Jeremy London) over their lifestyle as mallrats, and eventually beats Brodie in a fight. Shannon also attempts to take advantage of Brody’s ex-girlfriend, Rene (Shannon Doherty) after their breakup. Co-starring Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Clare Forlani and Stan Lee. On playing an alpha-male villain:
I really liked Clerks and the screenplay of Mallrats, believe it or not, depending on what you think of the movie. It was actually uproariously funny. I really wanted to do it.
In the comedy written and directed by Richard Linklater, Affleck plays high school senior Fred O’Bannion, who is repeating a year after failing to graduate. After hazing freshmen, O’Bannion is humiliated in front of the rest of the school. Co-starring Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, Jason London, and Cole Hauser.
That’s where I learned that an actor could contribute to a movie beyond reading lines. Richard Linklater sent a note to all the actors that said, “If this movie is produced as written, it’ll be a massive underachievement.” We were all 19 and 20 and down in Austin, and all the actors started to write their own ideas and their own little scenes. It demystified the process for me in an important way. And I was in Austin with all those young people that summer, and I was the only person who didn’t have sex.
Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt is born in Berkeley, the first son of Christine Anne, nee Boldt, and Timothy Affleck. His middle name is the name of a Holocaust survivor that his parents admire. The family moves to Cambridge where he grows up with his brother Casey, who is three years younger. His mother is a Freedom Rider who traveled into America’s Deep South in the 1960s. His father works as a theater actor and stage manager as well as doing manual jobs.
My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn’t go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.
He attends Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. His father has alcoholism, and his parents divorce. The domestic problems affect his schooling:
I was a bit of a f–up. I got really good grades until the last two years, and then I didn’t. I was having issues around my dad and my mom, and things just weren’t that stable — though that puts the responsibility on them, when really I just lost focus and stopped caring.
To escape problems at home he begins acting at Cambridge Rindge, appearing in Friedrich Durrenmatt’s play The Visit. He also appears in the PBS production The Life of Mimi, a Burger King commercial, and as an extra in Field of Dreams.
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