Thursday, October 11, 2012

I DON'T LIKE THE SOUND OF THEM APPLES, WILL. WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?  Mark Harris interviews Ben Affleck about the arc, the journey, and whatnot. As Affleck explains:
In our culture, we get very much into shorthanding people. And I got shorthanded as That Guy: Jennifer Lopez, movies bombed, therefore he must be a sort of thoughtless dilettante, solipsistic consumer blahblahblah. It's hard to shake those sort of narratives. ...I made a bunch of movies that didn't work. I was ending up in the tabloids. I don't know what the lesson is, except that you just have to find your compass.

I liked Sum of All Fears. Daredevil I didn't at all. Some movies should have worked and didn't. At a certain point, it's just up to the movie gods. Anyway, this image becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I just said, "I don't want to do it anymore. This is horrible. I don't want to be in this spotlight, this glare, in this way. It's tawdry, it's ugly, it's oppressive, and it's inane. So I'm going to try to get away."



And most of the way I did that was by not acting. I said, "I'm going to steer myself toward directing. I'm going to do something that takes me toward a place where the work that I do is reflective of what I think is interesting dramatically."

People bring up 2003, and I get it. Jennifer Lopez, and Gigli, and all this shit just kind of blew up. But, you know, in 2003, Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois! Okay?

8 comments:

  1. Interesting statement about Daredevil given that:

    a) Affleck is a pretty massive Daredevil fan--he wrote the intro to the collected Kevin Smith "Guardian Devil" storyline.
    b) Affleck met Garner while doing the movie.

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  2. I like the fact that he can separate the two though -- he can not like the finished picture but can still have positive things associated with it. This is a great interview - he's obviously a very passionate guy about his work and personally the shift from the Bennifer years to now is really just one about growing up - he had his 20-something figuring-life-and career-out years in front of the press.


    Anyone who tells it like it is, is smart, nice and is committed to doing good work is great in my book.

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  3. Joseph Finn7:19 PM

    He may not like it, but I still like Daredevil. Not a perfect movie, but it's enjoyable, it looks really good, it has Michael Clarke Duncan and it has Colin Farrell in one of the most delightful airplane scenes ever.


    Also, Frank Miller gets killed in it.

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  4. I really like the Director's Cut. I found the theatrical release to be fun to watch but not great, but the Director's Cut is GREAT.

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  5. Heather K9:43 AM

    I am very excited to go see Argo tonight (just bought the tickets). Part of the excitement involves getting my husband to agree to see a movie, but I also think/hope it will be really good.

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  6. You better not be kidding, because I'll totally give it a try and totally, totally come looking for you if another two hours of my life go down that hole.

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  7. I promise you, it's a different movie.

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  8. gretchen7:55 PM

    I recognized myself in this line: "But my mind's always going, "How are we going to light that shot
    tomorrow? What's the master shot for that scene? Is there even going to
    be a master?" Just ruminating endlessly. Because for me—I wish it was
    discipline or being a great artist. But it's just anxiety." Genius is overrated. Anxiety for the win!

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