Tell me, troper... do you bleed? You WILL!
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt, better known as Ben Affleck (born August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter and producer.
He became known in the mid-1990s, after his involvement in his friend Kevin Smith's The View Askewniverse, first with the film Mallrats and later playing the lead role in Chasing Amy in 1997. Affleck became an Academy Award winner for his screenplay with BFF Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting in 1997. He has established himself as a Hollywood leading man, having starred in several big budget films, such as Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Daredevil (2003). In 2003 he starred in the bomb Gigli, which at the time killed his career as a big star.
He's since rebuilt his acting career from the ground up by focusing on less glamorous roles than his earlier career, earning back a lot of cred with an award-winning turn as the troubled George Reeves in Hollywoodland, and had a full-on Career Resurrection in 2007 with his directorial feature film debut Gone Baby Gone which was both a critical and commercial success and with the reviews of 2010's The Town has proved that he's a force to be reckoned with. In 2012, he made the fact-based thriller Argo which is said to be his best yet and won an Oscar for Best Picture.
On August 22, 2013, Affleck was cast as Batman in the DC Extended Universe, appearing for the first time in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He subsequently appeared in Suicide Squad and Justice League, then left the franchise to focus on personal issues, but agreed to return for The Flash, thus he will go down as the actor who has played the Caped Crusader the most in live-action films (although always in ensemble films), currently tied with Christian Bale with all three installments of The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Affleck is also known for his high-profile relationships, with Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998, with Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000s (that one attracted worldwide media attention in which Affleck and Lopez were dubbed as "Bennifer"), which made arguably one of the earliest public examples of the Portmanteau Couple Name being used by the mainstream media. Following the breakup with Lopez in 2004, he began dating Daredevil (2003) co-star Jennifer Garner. "Bennifer 2.0" was more successful, eventually leading to marriage and three kids — two daughters and a son before separating in 2015. Later, Affleck dated Ana de Armas, then went back to Lopez 17 years after their affair ended. In July 2022, Affleck and Lopez got married. Politics-wise, Affleck is an outspoken liberal.
Many fans have stated the fact that he looks
◊ a lot
like the young version of Robert Smith from The Cure.
He is the older brother of actor Casey Affleck.
- The Voyage of the Mimi (1984) as C. T. Granville
- School Ties (1992) as Chesty Smith
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1993) as Basketball Player #10
- Dazed and Confused (1993) as Fred O'Bannion
- View Askewniverse:
- Mallrats (1995) as Shannon Hamilton
- Chasing Amy (1997) as Holden McNeil
- Dogma (1999) as Bartleby
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) As Himself / Holden McNeil
- Clerks II (2006) as Gawking Guy
- Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) as Holden McNeil
- Clerks III (2022) as Boston John
- Good Will Hunting (1997) as Chuckie Sullivan - Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay with Matt Damon
- Shakespeare in Love (1998) as Ned Alleyn
- Armageddon (1998) as A. J. Frost
- Phantoms (1998) as Sheriff Bryce Hammond
- Forces of Nature (1999) as Ben Holmes
- Reindeer Games (2000) as Rudy Duncan
- Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) as Joseph (voice)
- Boiler Room (2000) as Jim Young
- Pearl Harbor (2001) as Rafe McCawley
- The Sum of All Fears (2002) as Jack Ryan
- Changing Lanes (2002) as Gavin Banek
- Daredevil (2003) as Matt Murdock / Daredevil
- Elektra (2005, Director's Cut only)
- Gigli (2003) as Larry Gigli
- Paycheck (2003) as Michael Jennings
- Jersey Girl (2004) as Ollie Trinke
- Hollywoodland (2006) as George Reeves
- Smokin' Aces (2007) as Jack Dupree
- He's Just Not That into You (2009) as Neil
- State of Play (2009) as Stephen Collins
- Extract (2009) as Dean
- The Company Men (2010) as Bobby Walker
- The Town (2010) as Doug MacRay
- To the Wonder (2012) as Neil
- Argo (2012) as Tony Mendez
- Runner Runner (2013) as Ivan Block
- Gone Girl (2014) as Nick Dunne
- DC Extended Universe as Bruce Wayne/Batman:
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
- Suicide Squad (2016)
- Justice League (2017)
- Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- The Flash (2023)
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
- The Accountant (2016) as Christian Wolff/The Accountant
- Live by Night (2016) as Joe Coughlin
- Triple Frontier (2019)
- The Way Back (2020) as Jack Cunningham
- The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) as Treat Morrison
- The Last Duel (2021) as Count Pierre d'Alençon - Co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener
- The Tender Bar (2021) as Uncle Charlie Moehringer
- Deep Water (2022) as Vic Van Allen
- Air (2023) as Phil Knight
- Hypnotic (2023) as Danny Rourke
- I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney (1993, short film)
- Gone Baby Gone (2007)
- The Town (2010)
- Argo (2012) - Academy Award winner for Best Picture
- Live by Night (2016)
- Air (2023)
- The Big Goodbye (TBA)
Tropes in his works:
- Awesome, Dear Boy:
- He enjoys being in Kevin Smith's movies so much that he acts for less than he usually gets paid.
- He also declared that he'll always jump at the chance to play Batman in a DCEU film when the call comes.
- Career Resurrection: Gone Baby Gone and The Town brought him back on the map, and his Oscar win for Argo solidified it.
- He was the inaugural winner of the Razzie Redeemer Award during the 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards. At the time, it seemed to be specifically created to recognize Affleck's remarkable turnaround from being the butt of jokes to being an acclaimed film director, given the way they had a field day with him over Gigli.
- Creator Breakdown: Had a big one between the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Way Back. The combination of the Troubled Production of Justice League, his highly publicized divorce with Jennifer Garner, the Executive Meddling and box office failure of Live by Night and re-emergence of his alcoholism forced him to step down from directing, and later writing and starring in, his solo Batman movie (in addition to massive Creative Differences with DC Films), which was then completely retooled. He did make a Creator Recovery by going through rehab and mending fences with his family, and returned as Batman for some scenes in Zack Snyder's Justice League and in The Flash, and has openly talked about his recovery process.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Given that he's 6'4, most of his onscreen relationships are like this by default.
- I Am Not Spock: He's come to endure this from his own son since starring in the DCEU, and his son now apparently thinks he's actually Batman. This is to the degree where the son mistakes any Fed-Ex delivery guys for The Joker (as the uniform is purple) and Ben has had to pay the poor soul $20 to stage a fight on the lawn for his son's benefit.
- Meme Acknowledgment:
- A lot of people on the streets have let him know that he was the bomb in Phantoms.
- He's also learned to not stay silent during interviews with Henry Cavill, otherwise people will put Simon & Garfunkel music over it.
- Reprising his role as Holden in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, he smirks at the camera when he says he doesn't remember the name of Bruce Wayne's mom.
- Mr. Fanservice: In a few of his roles, most notably as Batman where he gets a few scenes to show off his physique, including one entirely naked.
- Old Shame: He hates Daredevil so much that part of why he took the role of Batman in Batman v Superman was a desire to do a superhero movie right. He'd also really rather you forget Gigli ever happened.
- One for the Money; One for the Art: One of the reasons he took the role of Batman was in exchange for Warner Brothers financing any movies he wanted to direct. The other reasons on the other hand...
- Out of Holiday Episode: Surviving Christmas, starring Affleck, a movie that takes place during Christmas, was released on October 22, 2004. It originally was slated for a Christmas 2003 release, but it was pushed back to avoid competing with another film of his, Paycheck.
- Production Posse: Aside from Clerks he's appeared in all of Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse movies.
- Romance on the Set: A serial offender at this. A number of his high-profile romances started on movie sets, namely with Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner, and Ana de Armas.
- Self-Deprecation: Whenever he's Adam Westing he's bound to make jokes at his and his career's expense.
- Star-Derailing Role: A combination of the failure of Gigli and his infamous appearance in Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From The Block" music video caused him to fall out of the public's good graces for a while.
- Star-Making Role: The Oscar win for Good Will Hunting and the blockbuster success of Armageddon (1998) really put him on the map.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 6'4, dark-haired and handsome.
- Those Two Actors:
- He and Matt Damon are good friends and old high school buddies, and they've frequently collaborated.
- He's also been in several movies and an Axe body spray commercial with Scoot McNairy.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: He got his start in comedies and campy blockbusters, but moved towards serious dramatic roles such as Hollywoodland, State of Play, Gone Baby Gone etc.
