If Ben Affleck is sick of talking about his personal life he didn’t let it show during a recent round of interviews to promote “Jersey Girl,” his latest collaboration with his long-time pal, writer-director Kevin Smith. Not only did the affable Bostonian respond to each and every invasive query about his recent break-up with Jennifer Lopez, he did so without a hint of annoyance. Perhaps the guy’s a better actor than his detractors give him credit for, or maybe he realizes it won’t be long before the fickle media gets distracted by another celebrity’s romantic entanglements. Whatever the reason, Affleck was a good sport about the bad break, and so we promise that after this piece we’ll lay off about his love life … unless, of course, he’s spotted with Britney or Paris!
QUESTION: What is it about your character, Ollie Trinke, that you identify with most?
BEN AFFLECK: What I could identify with is a guy coming from a working-class family and then moving from that world to what, for me, in my real life would be Hollywood. You know, what people would call the “fast lane.” So I’m trying to reconcile, like, who am I? Am I this guy from this working-class neighborhood, or am I changed now because I’ve moved on to (Hollywood).
Q: Ollie’s a hotshot publicist with a knack for manipulating the press. Do you think the average person is aware of just how much BS is presented as truth by the media?
BA: People can sense that there’s hyperbole and spin going on in Hollywood. My character is going on endlessly about George Michael’s heterosexuality. He’s joking, but it makes people wonder, “Are we being lied to half the time?”
Q: Are we being lied to half the time?
BA: I don’t know about half the time. It’s more complicated than lies, it’s like an angle. An angle implies subjectivity — something that’s open to a number of different interpretations, and trying to get the press to adopt the interpretation that you want them to adopt. It’s the same as in politics. President Bush — is the guy not very bright, or is he just a folksy, down-home guy just like you and me? Those are two different interpretations of the same thing, and each side is trying to get you to see it the way they want you to see it.
Q: What was the biggest lie told about your relationship with Jennifer Lopez?
BA: There were many lies that were printed by the press that weren’t spun by the publicists. There were lots of things I’d read constantly that weren’t true, to the point where I just stopped reading it because it was frustrating. It terms of me and Jennifer, the biggest lies were the ones printed in the tabloids.
Q: In the wake of your very high-profile break-up, have you had a chance to reflect on how all this has affected you?
BA: It’s a question that I think about a lot, particularly this last year. One of the things that has been nice about all this craziness I’ve been through recently is that it’s allowed me to put things into perspective a little more. My career and success and the approbation of a certain set of people is not the most important thing to me. I don’t hitch the wagon of my identity to that particular horse so much anymore. It is important to find a balance and have a real, substantive life outside of all those other things.
Q: Your co-star, Raquel Castro, was 7 years old when “Jersey Girl” was made. Having been a child actor yourself, what do you think are the biggest challenges kids who make movies face?
BA: I never had anything as big as this role when I was a kid. I wasn’t on “Full House” or anything like that, so I didn’t have to face some of these additional challenges. Even then, it ended up putting me in a position where my personality got bifurcated into this overly precocious kid who tried to be an adult and tried to take on more responsibility than he was capable of taking on. Then, on the other hand, there was the part of the personality that was still a kid and wanted to rebel against those kinds of things. One of the problems is I still feel that way.
Q: “Gigli” was given a Razzie Award for being the worst film of 2003. What’s it like to be crowned the best of the bad?
BA: I’m proud to tell you that this isn’t the first time we swept there — “Pearl Harbor” was heralded by the Razzies as well. But they never sent me anything. I thought they’d send a trophy or something — a little golden sack of grapes or whatever it’s supposed to be. So I feel stiffed by them, and I feel that they’ve diminished their integrity.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2004. Read the original PDF.