Ben Affleck takes new role with Gone Baby Gone

Jun 5 2008 By Robin Walker

Ben Affleck is reinventing his career with an acclaimed directing debut Gone Baby Gone, out in cinemas on Friday, June 6. He talks to us about surviving tabloid gossip and insists he's very different from his public persona.

Ben Affleck proves that even the crash and burn of a high profile Hollywood romance can have a silver lining.

At the height of his tabloid-blazing relationship with Jennifer Lopez four years ago, he started writing a film script of Dennis Lehane's disturbing novel Gone Baby Gone.

Set in his native Boston in the US, it's a harrowing thriller about the search for a missing four-year-old girl and the troubled people it involves.

Initially he thought of it as a vehicle for Lopez, but instead it has become an acclaimed directing debut for the 35-year-old actor.

In the decade since he won a Best Screenplay Oscar with pal Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting, Ben has gone from bright newcomer to blockbuster star to tabloid fodder. It has been a bruising rise and fall that would have sunk a less-talented actor.

But the surprising thing about Ben Affleck, considering his bad choices like Gigli, is how articulate and bright he is.

Multi-lingual in Spanish and French, his all-American good looks are matched by genuine depth and he's matter-of-fact about what has happened to his career.

"The first half of the media cycle was fascination, the second half was rejection. But what I never realised is that the public don't end up blaming the magazines that write every insane, untrue story."

He's a different person from his public image, says Ben - who admits to being very scared during his first day on set as director. Prior to Gone Baby Gone he'd only directed a short student film.

"I'm always described as 'cocksure' or 'with a swagger'. That bears no resemblance to who I feel like inside. I feel plagued by insecurity."

While depicting the tragedy of 1950s television Superman George Reeves in 2006 film Hollywoodland went some way to rejuvenating his acting career, Gone Baby Gone has really turned heads.

It stars Ben's younger brother Casey as dogged private eye Patrick Kenzie who refuses to give up on looking for the missing child. Set in the gritty world of working-class Boston, it's full of tough miscreants and losers.

"I just felt that maybe this was a way to have a sense of authorship about what I was doing without having to stick my face out there," says Ben about sitting in the director's chair.

It's a film that raises all sorts of issues about how we live, and how we treat children, he says. "At first you think the girl is a victim. Then you see her mother is really foul and you see the squalor the girl lives in and your heart goes out to her not only where she's been taken to but for where she used to live."

Ben has gone back to his roots to get a handle on his career again. "I wanted to do a movie set in Boston. I thought it would make me feel more secure because it's a place I know better than anywhere. I wanted to show the city the way I know it and to say something personal."

He went to great lengths to get real people to populate his film. "We ended up in a lot of bars at 9am, a time when you get a particular type of person in a bar," he says.

The film has echoes of the press frenzy over the Madeleine McCann case, but Ben cut back on making the media the bad guys in the film.

"I scaled back on that because Lehane really hammers the media in the book. I thought I can't do too much of this because, in a weird way, it was one of the ways my own hand might start to feel visible in the movie."

However, plans to show the film at the London Film Festival last October were put on hold by Disney because of the ongoing McCann case.

"We just thought it was better to err on the side of discretion and good taste," says Ben. "I'm proud to be associated with a company that made a decision I thought was respectful."

Casting his brother, who stars alongside Michelle Monaghan, was also an issue, Ben admits. "I wasn't just going to leverage my one shot as a director on nepotism, that would be foolish. I made this choice, as I think it's clear to anyone now, on the fact that he's obviously the right guy for the role."

Being a father of a young daughter (with actress wife Jennifer Garner) changed some of his views of the moral dilemmas posed by the book. He started writing the script before he became a father to Violet, now two.

"Before I had her, I had an intellectual understanding of what would happen to a parent to have a child taken away. But once I had a child myself, I understood it emotionally. That's a big difference," he says.

Ben will return to acting in the romance comedy He's Just Not That Into You with Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, due for release later this year.

He counts himself very lucky in a business where many people fall by the wayside. He may have taken a hefty paycut in Hollywood terms from his $12-million-plus-per-film heyday, but he is still paid a lot of money doing what he loves.

"I have really very little to feel sorry for myself about. People have legitimate hardships, so it's kind of petty for me to sit around ruminating about little dents in what has been a very fortunate life so far."

BEN AFFLECK'S CAREER HIGHS AND LOWS

Teen movies - Ben's early career saw him starring in some classic teen flicks including 1992's School Ties with Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon and Chris O'Donnell, Dazed And Confused, Mallrats and Chasing Amy.

Good Will Hunting - It was Ben's collaboration in 1997 with director Gus Van Sant and co-writer and friend Matt Damon that really put him on the Hollywood map. The film was nominated for nine Oscars and picked up two for best screenplay (Ben and Matt) and best supporting actor for Robin Williams.

Leading man - The success of Good Will Hunting led to string of lead roles for Ben in box office hits like Armageddon, Forces Of Nature, Pearl Harbour and The Sum Of All Fears.

Top of the flops - Not all Ben's films were well received by the critics, and although the big budget Pearl Harbour (2001) did well at the box office, it was generally panned by critics. His 2003 film Gigli, with then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, was a flop as was the following year's Surviving Christmas.

Comeback - Ben's role as 1950s Adventures Of Superman actor George Reeves landed him an award for best actor at the Venice Film Festival as well as a Golden Globe nomination. His directorial debut in Gone Baby Gone has been making waves throughout the movie industry. It seems as though Ben is here to stay.