Ben Affleck opens up in a brand new interview with GQ about his respect and love for his ex-wives, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez, his “love” for enjoying Batman and what it’s like having paparazzi seeming to observe his each transfer, together with when he’s sporting an outdated T-shirt whereas operating errands or spilling espresso on himself.
Insisting that his life is definitely fairly “drama-free,” the 52-year-old actor and director additionally talked to GZ about being within the information for an additional very private battle: His alcoholism.
Within the interview printed Tuesday, Affleck stated he has been sober for 5 years, although he stated he would have most well-liked preserving his sobriety “anonymous, because I think it works better than way.” However Affleck, who’s selling his subsequent film, “The Accountant 2,” stated he understands why the difficulty comes up sometimes.
This was particularly the case when he was selling his 2020 film, “The Way Back.” Within the drama, Affleck performed an alcoholic ironworker and former highschool basketball star who will get recruited to teach his outdated crew whereas he’s nonetheless ingesting closely and grieving the dying of his son.
“I knew with ‘The Way Back,’ like, ‘Okay, look, people know I’m an alcoholic or in recovery, I’m going to have to have a conversation about this,’” Affleck stated. “I didn’t really mind that.”
On the identical time, Affleck stated, “I didn’t have any ambitions to be the national spokesman for recovering alcoholics. And not because I have any shame with it or anything.”
“I just find that, I’ve been sober for more than five years, it’s just not something that is at the forefront of my mind. It’s not the central preoccupation of my life,” Affleck stated.
Nevertheless, when Affleck was filming “The Way Back” within the fall of 2018, he was very new to restoration, as he admitted to GQ. In August 2018, paparazzi and the tabloids reported on Garner, the mom of his three kids, coming into Affleck’s Pacific Palisades dwelling to stage an intervention. She subsequently driving him to a rehab facility in Los Angeles County. On the time, Affleck and Garner had been finalizing their divorce, whereas he had beforehand gone to rehab in 2001 and 2017, then relapsed.
“At the time, it was something that I was definitely wrestling with and thinking about,” Affleck conceded to GQ about making “The Way Back,” then selling it. “And also I was totally aware that my own lived experience meant that I was able to bring something to it that I thought would make it feel more real and connect with people more.”
Once more, Affleck stated his restoration might have gone simpler if the general public didn’t find out about his ingesting drawback. However, he stated, “I can’t complain about it either. I understood doing this job and doing this life, if something happened like that, people were going to know about it, and they did.”
Affleck additionally expressed gratitude for having the battle. He stated, “I have arrived at a place where I think of that experience as part of my life in authentically grateful ways, whereas I didn’t think such a thing was possible before. So that sort of is what it is.”
Elsewhere within the interview, Affleck’s feedback on Garner ought to put to relaxation current rumors that he needs to get again collectively together with her since his divorce from Lopez final yr. He clearly sees her as a good friend and praises her for being “a really good co-parent,” saying “we work together well.”
Affleck’s GQ interview largely made headlines Tuesday for what he stated about Lopez, his different ex-wife. He stated there no nice “scandal” that led to their high-profile breakup after lower than two years of marriage.
“The truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting,” Affleck stated. “There’s no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue. The truth is, when you talk to somebody, ‘Hey, what happened?’ Well, there is no: ‘This is what happened.’ It’s just a story about people trying to figure out their lives and relationships in ways that we all sort of normally do.”
Affleck additionally mentioned his participation in Lopez’s documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” which got here out in February 2024, to accompany her new album and a associated musical movie. The documentary was presupposed to be the pop mega-star’s tribute to her romance with Affleck, which first started within the early 2000s. They dated for about three years and have become engaged however known as off their wedding ceremony and broke up in 2004. Practically twenty years later, they revived their romance and received married in 2022.
A significant level of rivalry that Affeck and Lopez tackle within the documentary was their contrasting views on their public vs. their private lives. Folks have speculated that Affleck and Lopez divorced as a result of he couldn’t reside with the way in which she likes to publicize points of her private life..
To GQ, Affleck acknowledged that he’s extra “reserved and private” than Lopez however praised her for dealing with “celebrity more adeptly and more adroitly” than he has. Affleck additionally admitted that “as happens in relationships, you don’t always have the same attitude towards these things.”
However the “Good Will Hunting” star stated he doesn’t choose Lopez for a way she needs to be a extra public media character. He additionally stated he has “nothing but respect” for the pop star.
“I guess there’s a tendency to look at breakups and want to identify root causes or something,” Affleck stated. “But honestly, like I said, the truth is much more quotidian than probably people would believe or would be interesting.”
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