Nearing 30 uninterrupted years in Hollywood’s spotlight, Ben Affleck’s film resume is as impressive as it is long. GQ puts the American actor and filmmaker through his paces, as he answers one question for (almost) every film he’s done.After being turned down for the ‘big roles,’ Ben together with friend Matt Damon were inspired to write the script for Good Will Hunting. Fast-forward some years, Ben’s portrayal of Chuckie Sullivan catapulted him into a career trajectory like no other.Blockbuster roles such as Christian Wolff in The Accountant and Nicholas Dunne in Gone Girl sit nicely alongside his box office filmography — Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor to name a few.Affleck’s rollercoaster career has experienced both the highs and lows of any modern-day Hollywood maven (yes, we’re talking about Gigli). Here, Ben takes a ride on that rollercoaster and gives GQ an insight like never seen before.----------Director: Kristen DeVoreDirector of Photography: Grant BellEditor: Robby MasseyTalent: Ben AffleckProducer: Sam DennisLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Tracy ShafferCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-GunstSound Mixer: Kari BarberProduction Assistant: Lauren Boucher; Lily StarckGroomer: Jordan BlackmoreDirector, Post Production: Nicholas AscanioPost Production Coordinator: Rachel KimSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAdditional Editor: Jason MaliziaAssistant Editor: Andy Morell
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey GQ, I'm Ben Affleck, and I'm gonna answer a question about almost every movie I've done.
00:05That was too loud.
00:12Good Will Hunting.
00:14How did you and Matt get into the mind of a genius?
00:17Well, as far as I know, neither Matt nor I are geniuses.
00:20So, getting into the mind of a genius wasn't gonna literally be, or even metaphorically,
00:24be possible, but I mean, the idea of a character who has special abilities is very appealing.
00:32I think it's at the root of the wish fulfillment stuff in Marvel.
00:35I mean, if you just think of any superhero, right?
00:37It's like, I seem like an everyday, ordinary high school kid, or he's getting, you know,
00:41thrown against the locker, but actually I'm Spider-Man.
00:44Part of the trick is to not have to show the whole thing, but to sort of hint at it,
00:48you know, the discovery of him solving the theorem.
00:51I mean, obviously, you know, Matt and I could no more do multivariable calculus than we could,
00:56the kind of math that, you know, we couldn't even name the math that he was doing, you know,
01:00matrix multiplication or whatever in the hallways of MIT.
01:04So, we knew there was a sort of, okay, we're gonna have to get some expert to fill this in.
01:08But the idea that it was, that it would come from an unexpected person,
01:11Stellan's character is like, who did this?
01:13He's asking his class that they never would expect that this guy who's working there cleaning
01:18the building was special. I think had some appeal to us, probably for me, because my father had
01:25that job at Harvard, was a janitor. I think at the time, I like a lot of young people and maybe even
01:33older people really wanted to have my dad to be a hero. And I think I took some of that and into
01:40that sort of idea. But we really just, you know, faked it. And we, and when we had to have like,
01:46you know, elaborate, sophisticated mathematical solutions, you know, we had call on people who
01:50could do that. We heard that on Star Trek, when they were going to write their sci-fi stuff,
01:53the writers would just say, tech, tech, tech. So, we did it. And then people were like,
01:57I'm sorry, what is the tech? We were like, oh, we thought that was a thing. That's how,
02:00that's not how you do it in the show business. And they were like, no, no one does that. And then,
02:04you know, like we had mathematicians at MIT who kind of, and by the way,
02:07they could have been totally making it up. You know what I mean? We would, we looked at it like,
02:10yeah, that looks good. Like, yeah. Okay, guys, you got,
02:13Batman versus Superman, Dawn of Justice. Do you have any regrets?
02:17Uh, no, I had a great time. I love being in Detroit. I really love Zach. Chris Terry was
02:23writer who I love. And I really liked the core notion of this superhero who, you know, has this very
02:33iconic kind of legendary, you know, image in the public consciousness and who people kind of thought
02:40of a certain, one kind of way, which was very strong and very powerful and all this stuff.
02:45And they're trying to find the reality in that, which was a guy who's kind of aging and past that
02:52prime and has to like aches, has aches and pains and very much inspired by the Frank Miller graphic novel,
02:59the dark night where Superman and Batman, you know, are in conflict. And I love doing it and
03:06love making it. And, uh, I guess my regret about that movie is that when I went to show it to my son
03:11at the times, I thought, okay, this is it. He was totally too scared to watch it. So I lost out on
03:17that thing of like kind of being Batman to my son. Now he's like old enough. He's like, you were Batman,
03:21right? At one point, a long time. I'm like, just don't worry about it.
03:25Dazed and confused. Was this anything like your high school experience?
03:30The experience like that movie was very, was very similar to my school in some ways,
03:35kind of high school drama. You know, you have all of these kids who are trying to figure out who they
03:39are, what they're going to do with their life. And so everything feels like very big and momentous.
03:45And it, you know, it's, they're not wrong in a way. When I think back of high school, those four years,
03:51it seems like a much bigger period of life than say like some other arbitrary four years in my
03:56thirties or forties, that still feels kind of like when your identity is formed. And I think
04:02that's what Rick touched on and grabbed. And he also just wanted to make it real and consistent
04:07with his experience. I learned one of the most important lessons I've ever learned on that movie,
04:12which is that he really welcomed and solicited input and partnership on all the actors to come up
04:17with ideas and write lines. And, and then he made the movie, the movie evolved with that. And it,
04:23I didn't know you could do that. Uh, and I wasn't even able to try to do it until much later,
04:28but I remembered the, how exhilarating it was. Even the movie bombed, it was a disaster of a movie
04:36commercially. Like, you know, it was sort of like, Oh, that's, I remember reading and something that
04:39was like, Oh, how embarrassing, you know, but I liked it. And I'm, I'm really glad that it,
04:44you know, attained at the kind of sort of, I guess, cold status that it has.
04:47Gone Girl. Who is the real villain here?
04:53I don't know if there is a specific villain in Gone Girl. I think that's one of the things that
04:56makes it interesting is that you keep changing your estimation of these characters as the movie
05:01goes along and reveals more to you. And as it gets both darker and even a little bit more,
05:06you know, almost absurdist in a way, David Fincher, who I love and adore, one of the things that he's
05:13really good at is understanding the way that movies work. I mean, such a sort of masterful
05:19director, he understands what the expectations are of a movie like that, what the tropes are,
05:22what we're all used to, and then confounding those and subverting them so that, because you point out,
05:27Oh, the, this person's not necessarily who they would be in every other movie or, and so who we kind
05:33of subconsciously expect them to be. And obviously Gillian, you know, wrote a very, a terrific book
05:38that, that I had a huge success because I think it engaged people in it. And she touched on,
05:44uh, I, I think in a lot of ways, some of the like frustrating, contradictory expectations for
05:51relationships and, and women in particular, you know, the sort of cool girl monologue people have,
05:57you know, talked about a lot. And I had the sense that that really resonated with, with women.
06:02And David kind of has a dark comic sensibility. And so he kind of played with the genre in fun ways.
06:10And then, you know, like, like this, uh, very dark movie, but it also never lost its sense of fun.
06:16Buffy the vampire slayer. Tell us what happened here.
06:21My voice was removed from my performance. I'm not sure that they meant for me to have a line. So I may
06:27have been paid as like a featured extra, but I, I know I said a line and they recorded it. So I'd
06:32like to think it was some union thing that they rerecorded my performance, but maybe the director
06:37was just like, this guy's so bad. We need someone else to say, take it.
06:45Take it, man.
06:48Armageddon. What was the coolest set piece you got to play with?
06:52I got to walk onto the space shuttle, be at Cape Canaveral, Cape Kennedy. They let me
07:00go into their, it's hardly even in the movie, wear an actual space suit and go into the,
07:05they have this huge tank full of water with a space, a life-size space shuttle built in there
07:10to try to simulate weightlessness for like repairing the shuttle. And they're like, let us go in that
07:16thing, uh, you know, briefly, you know, that's a very rarefied experience. And I was like surrounded by all
07:21these astronauts. That's where I started realizing like these people are very highly skilled and
07:27trained and we're doing a movie where it's easier to, you know, train like oil drillers to be
07:34astronauts than it is to train astronauts to drill a hole in the ground. But it was, it was an
07:39incredible opportunity. And I'm really lucky that I got a chance to be in some of those kind of,
07:44I think of as in a way, old fashioned movies where you traveled around the globe and went to real
07:48places because as visual effects came along, you stopped having a go to like, now they just put
07:52the space shuttle in behind you. We actually filmed the space shuttle takeoff. It was amazing.
07:57Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Who wrote Good Will Hunting 2 Hunting Season?
08:04Kevin came up with that idea. And fortunately that script is, uh, is only as much has been written as,
08:10as, as is in that movie, but that was all to Kevin's credit. It was very funny, a very funny idea. And
08:17that was a point where we were, there was so much of just like Good Will Hunting around us that we
08:21kind of wanted to sort of, I don't know, take the wind out of it or make fun of it or get away from it.
08:26I think it's like the sort of stupid solipsistic ideas you have when, you know, you're in that kind
08:31of position. Phantoms. I was the bomb in Phantoms. Everyone knows that. Peter O'Toole,
08:37by the way, Peter O'Toole signed my Lawrence of Arabia poster that's out there. I'm a phantom of
08:42Nicky Cat, Liv Schreiber. I loved doing that movie. Well, no, I didn't love doing that movie,
08:46but I liked those people. The movie was a sewer monster movie, let's face it. And I was a sheriff
08:49in Colorado. I was like 20 years old. It was totally absurd. The movie was utter garbage,
08:54but I did get to ski. I made like a hundred thousand dollars. So I was like, I'm set for
08:58life. I'm retiring. And I met Peter O'Toole and like got stoned with Peter O'Toole. I was like,
09:03what else happens in my life that tops this? Nothing.
09:06Julie, what did you learn? I learned to kind of what I, the basics of directing and what I
09:14know about directing from Marty Brest in that movie. Marty had done Midnight Run and Son of a Woman and
09:20Beverly Hills Cop and Going in Style and Meet Joe Black. And he was wonderful and loving. And I also
09:26learned that you have to take big swings. One of the most important movies in my career. Had I not done
09:31that, I probably would have lived too much in fear of failure. The Town. What films influenced you?
09:40You know, The Town, I found it helpful to look at other films when I'm going to direct something,
09:46not to copy it or steal it. Although if I can steal something, sometimes it's, that's, I'm certainly not
09:52above it. I find it helpful because it kind of lets me communicate also to the other filmmakers
09:58involved in making it, whether it's the cinematographer, the actors, the gaffer, whoever,
10:02and say, this is sort of what I'm trying to do. But for The Town, Heat was chief among them
10:07for obvious reasons, I think. There was also sort of a, there's a movie called The Friends of Eddie
10:11Coyle that I thought was a really interesting, darker look at characters, particularly in Boston.
10:16You know, I had done a lot of action sequences and sort of kinetic stuff as an actor, but not as a
10:25director. And so that was intimidating and daunting. I had an idea about what I wanted to do and a
10:30belief sort of that I could do it. But to be honest, I was quite scared. It was also a movie where
10:35if that hadn't worked, probably, you know, it would have been the last movie certainly that,
10:38that you saw me as an actor in. That was an authentically sort of comeback time. There wasn't a
10:44huge appetite demand for me to be in movies or, and I really kind of used directing as a, as a way to
10:52redefine myself as an actor because I wanted to do it on my own terms and according to what my
10:58instincts were about it. And I was willing to really fail in that capacity if that was the case,
11:03but I re at least wanted to do it on my own terms. And I knew that in order to connect,
11:07get a larger audience and connect people to the movie and provide some kind of familiar guardrails
11:13in a way that they, people could get through that movie. I wanted to combine those genres of like the
11:17robbery, you know, the chase, uh, with the drama. And in a way that still informed my interest in
11:24movies like The Accountant 2, which I think is similar in a lot of ways.
11:26The Accountant. How did you research playing a neurodivergent character?
11:32For the first Accountant movie, uh, I did do a lot of, of, of traditional research in terms of
11:38spending a lot of time in, in schools and around, uh, similarly neurodivergent,
11:44uh, people, old and young. And it's a role that I have a lot of affection and fondness for.
11:50I find the character, it's sort of a weird thing. It's a very actor-y thing to say. Like,
11:53I like this character, but it's true. I do. It's fun. There's a wit and a lovely kind of dry,
11:59uh, wit that it comes with, um, a tendency to be very honest, which I find extremely appealing and
12:08charming and quite vulnerable in a way when a person kind of is willing to just lay bare the truth,
12:14rather than lay on a bunch of the sort of masks that we put on in, you know, polite society or
12:20whatever. The Accountant 2. What made you excited to come back to this story?
12:26The Accountant 2 was something I was really, really excited about for a number of reasons. One,
12:30I really loved the first movie and I loved the experience of doing it. And in the years since
12:36then, often people come up to me and say, I really liked, you know, that movie and name The Accountant.
12:41That movie in particular had a really, uh, kind of enthusiastic following. Like people liked it.
12:47It, it, it, it, it was like a, I guess a modest hit theatrically, but it really benefited from the
12:53emergence of streaming. So I feel like a lot more people saw it and I love the part and the character.
12:59I thought like there was an opportunity to lean into the warmth and humanity of the character and explore
13:04the brother's relationship. And I'm personally very interested in finding a way to make movies that,
13:11you know, would be considered like very commercial, very accessible, very broad and infusing those
13:16with, uh, the kind of like humanity and, and hopefully like nuance and complexity and honesty
13:22that we kind of associate with dramas, I guess. Uh, because that's what I'm interested in and I,
13:28I want to try to make those movies broadly appealing.
13:31Daredevil. Why'd you want to do this movie?
13:34Daredevil. I love the comic book and I, I loved working with Mike Duncan and Colin and Jen Garner.
13:40And, uh, it wasn't the adaptation ultimately that like, I thought was the best version of what it
13:46could have been. Uh, and that was disappointing.
13:48The Flash.
13:51Was this your favorite Batsuit?
13:53I mean, since I hated the Batsuits. The Batsuits are horrendous to wear. They're
13:58incredibly hot for one thing. They don't breathe. They're made to look the way they want them to look.
14:02And there's no thought put into the human being. And so what happens is that you just start sweating.
14:07Now I'm already, I sweat. You know what I mean? I get hot. And so in that thing,
14:11you would just be pouring water because it's got the cow over it. Like there's one thing to wear the
14:17suit, but once you cover your head, I guess that's where all your heat kind of escapes and you feel it.
14:23Even the like most highly trained, you know, much more fit stunt guys, the parkour guys, the action guys,
14:29they could do that for about like 45, 50 minutes. And then they were like going to get heat stroke.
14:33So you had to come out of it. And that was really the thing was that it's, it just made it difficult
14:38to make the movie because it was so hot. And it also does not make you feel very heroic because
14:42you're instantly exhausted and really sweaty and kind of trying to hide like the sweat pouring
14:48down your face. Like, no, we can go again. I'm fine. I'm good. And the eye black is like running.
14:52Yeah. I don't know. Maybe, you know, Christian or Rob or, you know, guys like that were just
14:58better at maybe, you know, dealing with it, but I found it to be the least fun part of it.
15:06Argo. Is it true that you would have loved to have turned this into a miniseries?
15:11It's not that I would have loved to have made into a miniseries. It's that if Argo were made today,
15:16first of all, it would not be released theatrically. I think the conventional wisdom,
15:19even at the time was dramas, period dramas in particular, particularly about like true life,
15:27like even political adjacent events do not succeed theatrically. And now I'm sure that that sense
15:35that there wouldn't even be any willingness to take a risk on it. So what it would be,
15:39would be something more like, um, well, like the best example, like, and there was a Chernobyl
15:44on HBO spectacular limited series that really delved into that event, which I think is still
15:50one of the best things I've seen in recent years. It's amazing. And that would have afforded more
15:54latitude to kind of look at all of the various underpinnings and complexities and pressures
16:00brought to bear on all the relative parties. And also maybe some more fun with the Hollywood stuff
16:06and the notions of fantasy and the universality of storytelling and that kind of thing. You know,
16:10and if I was going to explore more about it, I, I think I would explore a lot more around how it is
16:18that we arrived at a place in 1979 where the embassy was overthrown. I tried to do that,
16:24you know, in this very brief credit sequence, but there's a lot more there to examine that I think
16:29is interesting.
16:30Air, why did it take so long for this story to be told?
16:35I have no idea. It's a great story. I think maybe Michael Jordan needed to be kind of enshrined in
16:40history in a way where there was a little bit of distance. There's nobody that more powerfully
16:46exemplifies greatness than Michael Jordan. And in a lot of ways, it's very similar thematically.
16:53You know, when you think about it, just in terms of like somebody spectacular, it's like a superhero
16:56story, really. It's an origin story, but it's a real life genius story. It's a different kind of
17:02genius, but it's a genius nonetheless. As soon as I read it, I thought like this is the story to tell.
17:08Justice League. What makes the Snyder Cut special?
17:12Somebody sent me something that showed me like the Snyder Cut of the Justice League was my highest
17:17rated movie on IMDb, which I was like found quite interesting. I think it's because one of the things,
17:24the Snyder Cut, so to speak, is actually really the movie that Zack wanted to make. You have a director
17:31with a very clear idea of the kind of story they understand and want to tell and they know.
17:35And then you've got like a commercial expectation, like for example, like a very valuable like IP
17:41property, etc. And so there's sort of sometimes they'll hire this person for their distinctive
17:46take and view, and then want to impose on that something different. And the tension between those
17:52two things I think was very difficult and caused the movie, the first movie to feel very much like
17:59neither fish nor fowl, which happens. What I was really glad about was that Zack got the chance to
18:05go back and make the movie that he very much wants to make. You know, a lot of like long slow motion
18:09sequences and stuff in black and white, very much like R-rated. That's if you want to get a Zack to
18:16direct a movie, you should make a Zack movie. One of the things about directing is typically,
18:22you want to have it be closest to what that director is interested in and finds appealing.
18:26And so that movie is very much what Zack's vision was. And it's a rare thing that somebody gets the
18:32chance to go back and revisit and try to do what they wanted to do. And given the difficulty of that
18:38movie, I was very happy for Zack that he got a chance to do that.
18:41Gone Baby Gone. Does Casey take your direction well?
18:47Casey has very strong ideas about how he wants to play scenes because he's a great actor, to be
18:52fair. What I've learned about directing is that you've got to have a point of view and you've got to
18:58lead, but you've also got to listen. You've got this opportunity to hear from a lot of other brilliant
19:02people. And I truly believe it's a collaborative experience. And in that case, Casey, you know, did
19:07amazing stuff that I wouldn't have envisioned. And I'm glad that, you know, that was a collaborative
19:12experience. And to my credit, I knew how good he was, I think, before other people did. Although his, he
19:20was in The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford right before Gone Baby Gone came
19:26out. And I think he got nominated for that movie. So I didn't get to kind of ta-da with Casey. But nonetheless,
19:32you would be unwise to work with any actor and not have a two-way communication about how it's
19:38going to be. And also when someone's your brother, they don't respect you. So, you know, you can't
19:41expect them to listen to you. Pearl Harbor. Did you initially turn it down?
19:46I never definitely turned it down. They sent me the script. I sort of thought about it. I went and
19:50met with them, talked about it. And then ultimately they really wanted to make sort of Titanic, I guess.
19:57Certainly. I mean, everyone wanted to make Titanic in the sense that it was the biggest movie ever made,
20:00but also sort of tonally and thematically. Didn't quite end up being that. It sort of ended up being
20:05Armageddon in the Second World War. But it was a hell of a lot of fun and an honor to do because I
20:12spent a lot of time with Medal of Honor winners. I got to do a boot camp with like real U.S. Army
20:17soldiers, like pre-ranger training camp. And it was probably the most fascinating and moving personal
20:22experience to be on all these aircraft carriers and working alongside so many men and women in the
20:28military. And just to get to travel and to do a movie of that scale was pretty amazing.
20:33Shakespeare in Love. Why didn't you want to play Shakespeare?
20:37I read that script. It remains the best script that I've ever read. I was never going to play a lead.
20:42When I read that, Joe Fiennes was playing the lead. I read it because I was dating Gwyneth at the time,
20:48or I don't know if I read it because of that, but I remember that she was going to be in it. I read it and
20:54love that character. It was like the actor who's full of himself. And I thought it was very funny.
20:59And more than that, like the idea of like a Tom Stoppard screenplay, you know, to me just seemed like
21:06this kid, this is amazing. This brilliant guy has actually written a screenplay for the movies.
21:11And it was, it was the best screenplay I've ever read. I loved it. And I loved making the movie.
21:16And it was a thrill and an honor to do.
21:18Chasing Amy. How do you feel like this film has aged?
21:22At the time, what I thought was sort of interesting about it was that it kind of alluded to a,
21:28a spectrum of sexual orientation, because there was, to me, it was very suggestive around the
21:37homosexuality between the two friends or the relationship. What does a love relationship
21:41between men look like too? You know, you love this other man. We have friendships with men that we
21:45love very much. And it was a way of looking at, well, how is this also similar to like homosexual
21:51relationships or, or maybe there's a sort of, again, a continuum or a spectrum. And I thought
21:56that was kind of honest. And frankly, I found myself having to challenge my own kind of internalized
22:01homophobia because I felt so difficult to kiss Jason. And I thought like, I, this is really
22:06embarrassing. Like I, you know, this is clearly some internalized thing because why should that be a
22:13difficult thing to do for me? And I thought, I still think I did a shitty and unconvincing job of
22:18it and feel very disappointed by that. And I would love the chance to, to do better at that. Although
22:23of course, now I'm not sure that it, the idea of playing a gay character would be welcome or I might
22:29be like aversive to that because I think, well, I don't want to, you know, offend anyone in this direction.
22:34It was a movie that like at the time, you know, sort of felt like it was pushing some boundaries
22:41and in retrospect, as often happens, like the world has evolved.
22:44The Last Duel. How do you and Matt keep your working relationship fresh?
22:50That movie was very, it was, we, having written it with Nicole and really being interested in the kind of
22:56experimental notion of the idea of point of view and that, you know, that we really do as people
23:05bring into any interaction with one another, our history, our acculturation, our trauma, our hopes,
23:11our expectations, and view the present moment through the prism of that glass. You can really
23:17walk away from the same experience, the same conversation with different ideas in retrospect
23:24about sort of what took place. It was also a story about the vestigial aspect of the patriarchy
23:31that we've sort of inherited culturally and looking at what those looked like kind of run riot,
23:39to me seemed to be informative and telling about the present day kind of in keeping with the theme of
23:45this discussion and you're like there's, and yet that was what 2020 or something and here for five
23:50years later, that seems like a long time ago. Dogma. What did Kevin Smith tell you and Matt about this
23:58story? Well, I don't really have a very firm grasp on exact, the nuances of the complicated conversations
24:03we had. I know that Matt and I read that script. I read it when I was doing Chasing Amy and I viewed,
24:08I loved the script of Dogma and really viewed Chasing Amy as an audition for Dogma and I remember that
24:13we left Pittsburgh filming Dogma to go back for the Oscars when Matt and I won the Oscar for writing
24:20and I remember that that was a time in my life where like one day was one thing and the next day
24:25was something totally different and I think in retrospect because that was the most viewed Oscars
24:30in however long because of Titanic and so we happened to kind of be riding the coattails of that
24:35and I think a hell of a lot more people knew who we were from seeing us as the kids who won the Oscar on
24:40the show than from watching the movie at the time. But nonetheless, I felt like I left the set one day
24:46kind of anonymous and came back and there was like people outside my trailer on my autograph and I
24:51felt like this is a, I thought Kevin like made it playing a joke on us. School ties. Do you think this
24:58was your career launcher? I mean I kind of did at the time but I only had like three lines. Once again, I was
25:04this incredibly unlikable like horrible anti-semitic bully. That's when I started being like what is it
25:11about me that people, what am I giving off like uh these bully vibes. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to do
25:18it and you know that was very much like it was all these other young actors and they were all people
25:24who I was auditioning for the same stuff with and we all hung out and had a good time and Matt had a
25:29great part and obviously I was friends with Matt and this was nice to do that with him. But even I think
25:34halfway through I was like this might not be the big break for me. Mallrats. How did Kevin Smith
25:41pitch this to you? Kevin didn't pitch it to me. I came in auditioned for that movie and read the sides.
25:45At the time I was playing a lot of guys that you know throw teenagers into lockers and I was at risk
25:50of becoming like a professional on-screen bully and I really didn't want to play that part but because
25:56I was such a fan of clerks I went and auditioned for it and I just sucked up to Kevin until he cast me.
26:01Smoke and Aces. What was fun about this for you? Joe Carnahan put me in that movie where and and
26:08I liked the idea of like he's the guy you think is like going to be in the movie and lead in the
26:12movie and gets killed right away. I thought that was really fun. I remember Chris Pine in that movie
26:17and I Joe reminded me recently that I said if there's anybody I would love to have like a if I could like
26:23buy stock in an actor early would be this actor. He's really good. He had a small part in that movie but I
26:28thought he this guy's good and funny and really good looking you know uh so I thought well his
26:34things are going to pan out for him so I can say I did call that.
26:37Extract. Did Mike Judge do Beavis and Butthead on set?
26:42He didn't but I sometimes do that when my son's on TikTok too long and he says like nuts and I'm like
26:46hot nuts ass balls. Just saying balls is not funny. There's no wit in that. Just saying balls or penis like why is
26:54that a joke? Sorry. One of my favorite performances of mine of all time. I love Extract. I love the
26:59movie. I love Mike Judge. I love Jason Bateman. I love J.K. Simmons. It was spectacular.
27:03Jersey girl. Tell us about working with George Carlin.
27:07Oh my god. I love doing that movie too. I love Kevin. We had a beautiful time together.
27:12Vilma Sigmund shot that movie. Jen was great. Liv was great and George Carlin was such a... Raquel the
27:17actress who played the young girl. You know by the way she's like whatever 30 now or some crazy thing but
27:22George was a wonderful guy and a hero of mine and to get to work with him and get to know him
27:27was an honor and a treat. Jay and Silent Bob reboot. Is there something that really resonates with
27:34you about this movie? There's a lovely monologue about fatherhood in that movie. The words of which
27:40I still remember which are like you're you know becoming a father means that you're not the star,
27:46you're the stage and that has like resonated with me and been true and and I think it's a lovely
27:53way of articulating the transition and the kind of real meaning of of life that's discovered in that
27:57process. Hollywoodland. What broke your heart about George Reeves? Hollywoodland. Extremely moving story.
28:07Lovely director. Adrian Brody I love. Diane Lane I love. Again like had the chance to work with really
28:12gifted people and I put a lot of weight for the role and I remember it was really hard to take it off.
28:18I found it to be a Bob Hoskinson in the movie it was a beautiful heartbreaking story about a guy who
28:25who did really get kind of pigeonholed in this role and the way that that affected his life and I had
28:32some things I could identify with that not the obvious ones or not identical ones but I understood
28:38that you can go into these experiences movies you know any kind of public life sort of thinking about
28:44the job you're doing or viewing it as a job without any sense of what effects and the unintended
28:50consequences might be of that and then you live with them. So I felt a lot of compassion empathy for
28:57Reeves. The Way Back. What was your experience of playing this character? The Way Back was a really
29:05wonderful experience for me even though the story of I mean somebody losing a child is like the worst
29:12possible thing that can happen to you and I I really have a difficult time imagining or even
29:18wanting to imagine that. I am in recovery and sober myself so the alcoholism that the guy kind of
29:24descended into is something that I could kind of draw on personal experiences for but really Gavin is a
29:31a wonderful director and all of his movies whether it's Miracle or Warrior you know or Count of the
29:37Way Back he has a real interest in and attention to the people themselves and he's a great director
29:44for actors because he really wants the performance to be good and he I think he has really good taste
29:49in terms of what he uses. That felt like very much the beginning of a period of my life and I guess
29:56career as an actor where I just wanted to do parts that I personally was really interested in doing and
30:03exploring as an actor and kind of let go a little bit of this concern that I think comes with you know
30:09any kind of performing job where you know you're performing in the audience obviously is a part of
30:14that awareness of the audience and the hope that the audience likes it and wanting and I think that can
30:18lead to wanting to get you know people to see it and get positive feedback and I kind of was able to let
30:24go of some of that sort of do they like it what do they think and not think so much about the I don't
30:29know all the strategy of a career and all that stuff which I'm not very good at anyway and really
30:35you know ironically of course I feel like that's when I started to really feel the most comfortable
30:40and have the most fun as an actor. Live by Night. Why do we keep coming back to gangster movies? Hard to
30:47say it's so something about the gangster movie that's just has a very lasting appeal I think in
30:54some ways because it's writ large the whole the ambitions that we have I'm gonna do something in
31:01my life I'm gonna you know I have these dreams I want to be successful but there's also something
31:05kind of provocative and scary and alluring about doing it within a world where the stakes are kind
31:13of life and death I think that the godfather and godfather 2 also have a lot to do with that because
31:18those films were so iconic that it sort of established that genre as the great genre of cinema
31:24um but you know it angels with dirty faces was was an inspiration for me with with with the town and
31:30live by night and after uh Argo I thought this is probably the only chance I'm gonna have to do a a
31:35period gangster movie and I still feel like as a director in terms of the technical execution of
31:43the movie I feel like that's probably my best work in some ways I'm every sort of shot in that movie
31:51I put together in a way that was I felt was complicated and interesting and complementary to
31:55the movie and when I look back on it I really love the movie and I and I kind of love what it what it
32:01had to say in particular theme around the urgency and the immediacy of like this life right now in
32:07the present moment rather than a distant reward in heaven or or even in the future it's like this is
32:14it this is what we have only right now we can't change the past we're not in the future the idea of
32:19sort of postponing that or assigning like well I I'm going to tolerate this life until some point
32:25in the future that just doesn't come you know what we have is is the present moment this is sort
32:30of a buddhist idea about one that I was really drawn to and I guy I love that movie glory days
32:38tell us where the goatee came from that was rich's idea riches the haircut the faux hawk and the
32:42drumming I learned drum the punk rock music and the thing that was that was Wilkes I was being I was
32:46being rich in college in Santa Cruz you know not everything ages well it's not it didn't even play
32:51well at the time actually I don't think it didn't even play at the time because it didn't come out but
32:54all right good okay now what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say this film
33:01reindeer games uh I love working with well I love working with John Frankenheimer he was a tough
33:07guy and he yelled all the time but he was he'd obviously been through some kind of anger management
33:11course because he would be like props what the is wrong with this this is the worst props I've ever
33:16seen and then he walked like three steps over a craft service and he'd go this is the best sandwich
33:21I've ever had you know it's like oh I somebody told him like say something nice after you so you
33:26always knew after he bitched somebody yeah I always try to get close to my best actor you've ever worked
33:30with her the sum of all fears the more fears Alec and Harrison had played that part so it was quite
33:35daunting I had been in a Phil Alden Robinson movie before but only as an extra in a field of dreams
33:42playing Jack Ryan was amazing an amazing opportunity it was this iconic part I worried and felt that I
33:49wasn't up to the task and then sort of tried to bring that insecurity and as somebody a critic remarked
33:56insouciance I had to look the word up at the time to the role it means a sort of like fecklessness
34:02like uh not really capable enough you know but you know young and you know like you know you know
34:08underqualified I guess that movie also I got to I loved Montreal and and I met and got to work with
34:14one of my heroes in Morgan Freeman additionally a wonderful benefit because he was kind enough to come
34:19do my first movie I directed it was my homage to Glengarry Glen Ross and Alec Baldwin's performance
34:28it was really fun it's probably the best two days I've ever done in a movie the company men
34:34John Wells lovely guy uh Tommy Lee Chris Cooper and I a very sad movie but one that was really
34:43connected to what was going on the country at the time to the wonder I love Terry Malick I love him
34:50and I've never had an experience like it before since forces of nature Rama Hughes uh Sandra
34:57Bullock and uh a really beautiful fun experience in Savannah that I will always remember with huge
35:05fondness and nostalgia the tender bar loved that part very and a good time in my life and I felt
35:14wonderful and good about acting and I loved doing it and George I had one of the best relationships
35:19with a with a director in terms of my performance I've ever had I felt like this was a guy with
35:22and I was in great hands with the dark end of the street
35:27my first movie I was seven years old and I got it by napitism because my mom's best friend was the
35:39casting director and also the wife of the director Jan Eagleson and they needed a little kid to be
35:44sleeping in a bed and to say a line and I I was seven and I don't really remember it but I'm sure I was
35:51great state of play Kevin McDonald's terrific that was a really uh interesting experience shooting in
35:59DC I did a lot of research in congress it was a really intense interesting experience with Jason
36:04and Rachel McAdams and like I mean it was just spectacular Alan Mirren uh Robin Wright who's one
36:10of the best actor I've ever worked with Robin Wright is incredible I mean you go into a scene with Robin and it's
36:17like all of a sudden she just makes everything true and real I mean she can carry another actor
36:24she's a genius well I worked with her and I thought oh this is what can be done I remain
36:30just in awe of her I tried to get her in movies but she's always unavailable changing lanes
36:38love that movie loved Roger Michelle who's a beautiful director I've tried to emulate Roger's casting
36:44of of performances in every single person in the movie Matt Bradley Cooper uh been a lifelong friend
36:50I suppose since then on that movie Sam Jackson's a guy just admired enormously and was thrilled to work
36:57with and Tony Collette and Amanda Pete I I really liked that movie and it was the first time I got a
37:04chance to do it a script that was really good and I could sink my teeth into and I I really felt like
37:08I wanted to prove something with that movie and I was ultimately proud of it on balance he's just
37:14not that into you I don't remember one thing about them except the DP I remember the cinematographer
37:19he was uh John uh um he's dead now anyway okay obviously it's not staying with me all these movies
37:25you know the final result you really care about but at the end of the day what they mean to me
37:30really has to do with the experience and and what I learned it's fun walk down memory lane makes me feel
37:36old like that guy was like before they was talking in movies you know what I mean the kind of people
37:41like I look at all the young people they're like oh wow you knew pt barnum that's like that's right