I find forgiveness to be really healthy.
BEN AFFLECKI find forgiveness to be really healthy.
BEN AFFLECKSometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command. But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.
BEN AFFLECKI’m a writer. An amateur photographer. An actor.
BEN AFFLECKWhen you hire great actors, you’re lucky, so you just try to create an atmosphere where they can succeed and relax and take risks. You’re happy that you get to watch them at the monitor and that your name is on the director’s chair.
BEN AFFLECKThere is currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency. You can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.
BEN AFFLECKI try to cast really good actors and give them a chance to do their very best work, give them as much time and space as they need.
BEN AFFLECKI dyed my hair for photo tests… I kept it because when am I ever going to be blond again?
BEN AFFLECKYou get old, you slow down.
BEN AFFLECKAll I do, really, is go to work and try to be professional, be on time and be prepared.
BEN AFFLECKI’m trying to make people feel welcome and feel valued.
BEN AFFLECKI try new things and give myself permission to fail and experiment because only that way can you get really successful.
BEN AFFLECKJust because a lot of people know something nominal doesn’t make it important. A lot of people know what a pencil sharpener is, but that doesn’t make it the most important invention of the 20th century.
BEN AFFLECKIt wasn’t my childhood fantasy to work with Truffaut or be in obscure films. I like Midnight Run better than I like The Bicycle Thief. It was films like Die Hard and Bladerunner that made me want to be an actor.
BEN AFFLECKI hate the whole reluctant sex-symbol thing. It’s such bull. You see these dudes greased up, in their underwear, talking about how they don’t want to be a sex symbol.
BEN AFFLECKStudios are used to have an investment in you, an actual, literal investment in an actor. You paid them some money, you had a contract with them and you were almost like a commodity.
BEN AFFLECKI think we all like to see ourselves as good dads, but there’s also that fear, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be like my father,’ or, ‘I hope my kid doesn’t turn out like me.’ You know, I have those feelings too. So the key is optimism.
BEN AFFLECK