Highlights
- Ben Affleck admits he hates influencer culture and got banned from Instagram twice for impersonating himself.
- The actor gets brutally honest about his miserable time filming Justice League and that viral smoking photo.
- He officially confirms he did not wear a prosthetic in Gone Girl, ending years of wild internet speculation.
In a new cover story with Ben Affleck for Variety, the actor reveals that he’s is tired of being your favorite miserable meme.
“Does anyone have any idea what I had to deal with by 11 a.m. that morning?” he asks about the infamous “Smoking Ben” photo, where he was captured rolling his eyes into the back of his head.
Sitting in his West Hollywood office—guarded by a literal Batman suit—the 54-year-old actor is spilling his guts about the exhausting machinery of modern fame, his viral misery, and what he really thought of Justice League.
Affleck is acutely aware of his place in the Hollywood food chain. He knows the scrutiny he faces, noting he’s “been a bit reluctant to talk” because promoting his work “increasingly feels a bit like a minefield.”
“It’s like, ‘Don’t say something stupid that’s going to haunt you forever,'” he admits. “I used to have more fun; it’s a little less so now.”
Part of that minefield is the modern demand that stars double as online influencers. He openly praises his exes, noting he has seen “both Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Garner do amazing jobs cultivating and accruing value in those spaces.”
As for himself? “I couldn’t do it. What am I going to do, unbox something?”
In fact, Affleck reveals he “got banned from Instagram twice for impersonating myself” just trying to monitor his kids’ accounts.
“I would not be good at that,” he insists. “I’d be a terrible influencer.” And his Artists Equity co-founder Matt Damon? “He’d be worse.”
Affleck craves the old-school mystique of movie stardom. “It doesn’t help me appreciate their movies to see what they had for lunch,” he says. “I realize I sound like an old, out-of-touch person, but I believe that as an actor you have to maintain an illusion.”
The illusion shattered entirely during the peak of weekly tabloid culture. “Whole new genres emerged out of that demand,” Affleck recalls of the era. “I was around for that, and I remember it was really overwhelming because it was unprecedented.”
Now, his routine is surprisingly mundane. “I work hard, and then I go home and pick up the kids from school,” he says. “We have dinner if they agree to hang out with me.”
But he’s not entirely sanitized. When discussing his 2021 Howard Stern interview on addiction, he stands by his blunt assessment. “You’ve got to suffer enough to have something at stake you don’t want to lose,” he says. “Something has to click on an amygdala level.”
He’s equally blunt about his stint in the DC universe. “I really liked doing Batman v Superman,” he noted to Variety. But the chaotic follow-up? “Justice League had a lot of issues, and that wasn’t that much fun, frankly.”
And for those wondering if he wore a prosthetic in that infamous Gone Girl shower scene, Affleck offers one final, definitive quote to clear the record.
“I wore no prosthesis. I’ve only worn one in one film, ‘Hollywoodland.’ It was a nose.”
