Ben Affleck: Cashing his "Paycheck"

All we've heard about in 2003 is Ben/Jen or "Beniffer" and are they or are they not getting hitched. This leads us to forget that the two are not joined at the hip but are talented, separate performers in their own right. Ben won an Oscar with Matt for writing Good Will Hunting and has played everything from a government agent to astronaut to superhero. What most people don't realize is that Ben is funny. Hilarious at times and very clever.

When we spoke to him about his role in the new sci-fi action thriller Paycheck in which he co-stars with Kill Bill's Uma Thurman, the actor was casual in grey hoodie, striped shirt, jeans and sported a devilish goatee. He was quite devilish in his answers to our questions, especially the one about his relationship with J.Lo. Ben chatted very candidly about his failures, mistakes, the tabloids, advice from Gwyneth and his hopes for future projects. He even spoke Spanish for us..with a perfect accent. Evidently a skill he's gained from his relationships with J.Lo and her family. He's spending the holidays with Jen, his family and then hers.

TeenHollywood: If you were 15 years old again and somebody gave you a chance to use this see-into-the-future machine and shows you this future, your life now, what would the 15-year-old have to say?

Ben: Wow, I think that kid would think he had been given a bum machine. I would be like, 'what's your con?' I don't think I would have had the psychological capacity to understand what all those things mean, I'm not sure I have it now really. It's something I continue to process, I continue to evaluate the pros and cons of my life. It continues to surprise me. Every time I've thought like, 'this is how my life's gonna go, I'm gonna do this, this and this' and it's turned out completely different. It gives truth to the old adage 'if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans'. One of the problems with you when you're 15, 16, 17 and 18 is you think you know everything. Like, 'dad, you're an idiot'. And then turns out when you're 25 you're surprised how much the old guy has learned.

TeenHollywood: What's the craziest thing a fan has ever done?

Ben: Climbed in my window. I was on location, somebody showed up and was climbing the window.

TeenHollywood: Did you throw Matt out of there?

Ben: [cracks up laughing] I was like bro, stop this! I'm just not going to play opposite you in a home game of "Mr. Ripley". So that's how that went.

TeenHollywood: I wanted to ask you about all the Red Sox references in the movie. Was that your influence?

Ben: Yeah, I try to pass it off. For one thing it was the Mets initially in the script. I mean I have family in Boston. I'd rather say I worship Beelzebub in a film than say my favourite baseball game is the Mets. So I slipped it by John [Woo, the director], I was kinda like, 'it's an interesting thing, baseball. Not that it matters but I think maybe we'd get a better reaction if we used Red Sox, what do you think'? He was like 'nngg'.

TeenHollywood: He couldn't care less, right?

Ben: Yeah, it's just a sports team to him. Because he's a big fan either way. I kinda played it cool. There was that, and it led to many more victories to come. I thought, this augers well. So I knew Gigli was dog s***, you know what I'm saying? This f***** better pan out for me. [We all laugh].

TeenHollywood: You barely got this role, I understand. It almost went to your best buddy.

Ben: Well, I wouldn't say barely. Just a second, it's not barely. Yeah, John saw The Bourne Identity, loved it obviously. It's an obvious choice for this movie. In fact so obvious that while Matt was honored to meet John and wanted to work with him he was kinda like 'I just can't do two amnesia pictures or else I'm just gonna be amnesia guy'. He called me after the meeting and he said you've got to get hold of this script, it's really smart, it's good, it's Philip K. Dick, it's John Woo. As luck would have it for me, John was meeting with Matt in New York and he flew back and the movie I'm told on the plane was Changing Lanes [in which Ben starred]. And he dug it so when we landed he offered me the part and I was like this is serendipity. But I refuse to pay Matt a commission.

TeenHollywood: You made this sarcastic mention of Gigli. Do you disarm your critics by being your own critic?

Ben: There's no disarming my critics my friends. They refuse to be disarmed. Hey, I'm not entirely dim. I saw the movie ahead of time and I thought, 'well, we're in for it, we're gonna get wacked'. And if it was two other random actors it would have just quietly slipped away. There were four or five other movies that did zero business and just kind of went away and it would have been like, did that come out? They pay me very well, I went into this with a bunch of other people. I'm gonna support the movie and promote it and make sure it didn't fail for lack of awareness.

TeenHollywood: What did you learn from the experience?

Ben: One, it's a good illustration of the fact that you can't tie your self esteem or your sense of well-being to your career. It's just too up and down a business. You're gonna have some misses, and some of them big. What are you gonna do? Go hang yourself in the bathroom? I mean it happens. But I really felt good about this movie [Paycheck]. I felt like it worked.

TeenHollywood: And Jersey Girl is coming.

Ben: And Jersey Girl I know is wonderful. Interestingly enough I think Jersey Girl will be the movie that demonstrates that it really wasn't so much about me and Jen.

TeenHollywood: What did you learn from the tabloid feeding frenzy over you and Jennifer?

Ben: Unfortunately we helped sell a lot of tabloids, but it sort of hurt. And we take responsibility for that, we made a mistake. We shouldn't have been available at all to any degree. We were just dating and having fun, and we thought this is nice. And I had been through it with Gwyneth, so I thought, what's the worst thing that could happen? I actually know the answer to that question, which is nice. That's like my only flaw when I play poker, sometimes I call too many hands. I'm like 'what could you have?' Well, aces! Turn em.

TeenHollywood: But isn't reading this stuff upsetting?

Ben: It's distracting, and frankly it really hurts my feelings. I have a family and other people care about this, it's not just me, there's other people involved. But I sort of take comfort in the knowledge that most thinking people understand that the tabloids are basically fictitious. That they pay sources, that they lie. Most people don't really think that bat boy has returned, or that George Bush is an alien... well cut off that last one. I just don't read it, I don't pay attention. Gwyneth told me a smart thing a long time ago. I got all bent out of shape when I did a few interviews for the first time in London, for the London Times. The guy seemed perfectly nice, a reasonable guy. And I went home and it was like [British Accent] 'Ben Affleck is the stupidest and most pretentious b*****d I have ever met'. I was like 'aaaahhhh! I can't believe this'! And she said, 'you know it's not really about you, it's about some projected thing, some identity that's out there. It's not really about you, he doesn't know you'. I thought, well look, that's true. There's a way to divorce yourself from it and not personalize it.

TeenHollywood: Okay, we have to ask. Was there truth to that lap dancer story up in Canada?

Ben: The people who work on the movie [Paycheck] really get it. I had like 18 other people who were there that knew it was totally false. At the end of the day, I just try to pay not that much attention to it.

TeenHollywood: Second "have to ask" question. Are you and your sweetheart going to get married?

Ben: I'll answer this question. I think it's important to address it. It is now legal in Massachusetts, and Matt and I have set a date. New Years day with a honeymoon in Greece. [huge laughter].

TeenHollywood: Okay. Moving on..your character in Paycheck has his memory erased. Do you have any memories that you'd like to erase?

Ben: I think you'd be tempted to have some non-events, things that didn't happen [erased]. I think even the things that happen to you that are bad, or things that are difficult, the mistakes I've made, the failures I've had. All that stuff I think serves, I hope, to make me more interesting. I think because it helps you as a person it helps you as an actor.

TeenHollywood: You are really action-dude in this film. How did you tackle all the stunt work?

Ben: Yeah, I had a lot of stunts. I worked out a lot with abject fear and intimidation of John Woo, like thinking what is he gonna ask me to do? The worst thing I could think of happening was for John to say 'you're gonna do this and this and this'. And me try to do it and look foolish and be like' I can't do it'. And then John would say 'we need a stunt man, you are failure! Shame'! I was real scared of the whole thing and so I just killed myself working out trying to do a lot of flexibility, a lot of weight lifting, a little bit of running. And with the weight lifting a lot of heart rate raising exercises, like squats, one leg up lifts, military presses. I ride a motorcycle and I really wanted to do it, and I did as much as John would let me. John actually is a very conservative guy. He likes to be cautious with his actors. I think the Hong Kong attitude is keep the actors safe and kill the stuntmen. Sometimes he would lament like, 'In Hong Kong after shootout scene, the stuntman peel hot casing from face and they say ready to go again sir'. I was like, 'oooookay'!

TeenHollywood: Do you step up your workout regime before you do a movie?

Ben: [laughing] I begin my workout regime when I do a movie, otherwise I couldn't see any reason in the world to work out. I'm not one of these guys who's like 'yeah I just love the gym. Just got to be there in the morning'. I'm like, 'get up at four, you gotta be f****** kidding. Go to the gym'

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about working with Uma?

Ben: Uma, I think she's actually younger than me, but she has been successful for so much longer than I have. She's seen the ride, she's worked with all the directors, she's been the super-hot thing, and she's now an established star. It was an enormous relief to work with somebody who is such a constant professional. She was always on time, always ready to do her job, wanted to do all the stunts. It was really kind of humbling because I started to feel that she was tougher than me. Uma is extremely well educated, extremely bright, extremely compassionate. She has these two amazing little cherubic, angelic little kids. They're the kind of kids I try to talk baby talk to, 'look you're a little princess'. And she's like, 'you're stupid, I'm not a princess, I'm a little girl'. Clearly her parents have been using 25 Cent vocabulary words with her since birth.

TeenHollywood: Have you ever accepted a job just for a paycheck?

Ben: Sure, I did construction for two years, I washed dishes. I didn't do any of those jobs for fun. I worked at a movie theatre. I did a sewer monster picture called Phantoms. Did you see that? There was a sewer monster in it. I was the deputy sheriff. We battled, me and Peter O'Toole. I took it to fight the sewer monster and the check and to meet Peter O'Toole.

TeenHollywood: What is important to you right now?

Ben: The most important thing to me is honesty, integrity, trying to earn a living in a way that's healthy and kind and decent to people. That's the stuff I'm going to feel good about at the end of the day. I can't control what the movies are doing. I can control that I was always pleasant, caring, empathetic, decent, fair. There's family and love. What else is there?

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.