But After A Tumultuous Decade

 Ben Affleck will turn 50 this year. “Eight months and 14 days,” he said on a December afternoon in Los Angeles, letting out a dry laugh. “But who’s counting?“


It’s not surprising that a movie star would approach such a milestone with a certain degree of self-reflection, if not dread. But after a tumultuous decade in his career and his personal life — marked by great highs, including his 2013 best picture win for “Argo,” which he directed, and deep lows, including his divorce from actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he has three children, and his public struggles with alcoholism — Affleck says he is at peace these days.


“The common thread I’ve found from the people I know who’ve turned 50 who are the happiest is that they’ve stopped worrying so much about what other people think,” he said. “I think that’s the gift of that age. When you hit 30, you think, ‘Now I’ve figured it out,’ then you hit 40 and you’re like, ‘I had no idea.’ Now, when I think about being in my 20s, I wonder, ‘How was my brain distinguishable from a gorilla’s at that age?’”


Feeling wrung out after his run as Batman in 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and 2017’s “Justice League,” Affleck has focused in the last few years on less splashy and more character-driven roles, delivering some of his strongest acting work in years. In early 2020, he had a well-received turn as an alcoholic high school basketball coach in the drama “The Way Back,” which opened shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced theaters to close down. He earned positive reviews last fall for his against-type performance as a pompous, lascivious count in Ridley Scott’s period drama “The Last Duel,” even as the film — which he co-wrote with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener — underperformed at the box office, seemingly a victim of older demographics’ reluctance to return to theaters.


Now, Affleck is co-starring in George Clooney’s drama “The Tender Bar” as a bookish, working-class bartender who becomes a father figure to his nephew, played by Tye Sheridan. Though “The Tender Bar,” which is based on the 2005 memoir by former Times staff writer J.R. Moehringer, has drawn mixed reviews, critics have praised Affleck’s understated performance, for which he has earned a Golden Globe supporting actor nod. Currently in theaters, the film begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video today.


To play the role of Uncle Charlie, Affleck drew not only on his difficult relationship with his father, an aspiring playwright who drank too much and worked for a time as a bartender while Affleck was growing up, but also on his own wellspring of life experience. “There’s something to getting older — those feelings are more accessible to me,” he said. “I know what resentment or regret or ambivalence or nostalgia feel like. I just didn’t know what they felt like at 24.”


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Despite his staying power in Hollywood, Affleck still makes for a big target after so many years in the public eye — and his penchant for spilling his guts in interviews can get him trouble.


Last month, after this interview was conducted, he received backlash for comments he made on Howard Stern‘s radio show about his marriage to Garner in which he said he had felt “trapped” and suggested that was “part of why I started drinking.” Days later, Affleck — who is currently dating one-time fiancée Jennifer Lopez again — said his comments had been misconstrued.


As the ever restless Affleck strives for a kind of stability that has long seemed elusive, The Times spoke with him about his career peaks and valleys, his public image and how he is navigating an industry in flux.

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