Ben Affleck on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast
Ben Affleck is making his rounds on the press circuit for his upcoming Netflix feature Animals, where he pulls triple duty as the writer, director and star of the film. Affleck appears on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his film and host Josh Horowitz discusses a lot of topics in depth with the star. One of the topics they talk about was a time when he was overexposed in the media and he chose to direct Gone Baby Gone. Affleck was candid in revealing that his pitch for directing the movie was that he wouldn’t be appearing in it.
Affleck defends Digger
The star would champion interesting filmmaking as he continued talking about his directorial debut. His anecdote would lead into a little defense of Tom Cruise’s latest film, Digger. According to The Wrap, Affleck reflected on the reviews of Gone Baby Gone, recalling, “Even the reviews for that movie were, like, I remember one that was like, ‘Well, now I know what my hat tastes like.’ It wasn’t even a rave. It was just like, ‘Fine, this isn’t the worst piece of sh*t you’ve ever seen.’” Affleck then continued,
It’s a little bit like the high school bullying thing. You see it happening now, frankly, with Digger. Everybody wants to celebrate this bomb as if it’s the most exciting thing that happened and you think like, ‘This is a pretty ambitious, interesting movie made by interesting people that have talent.’ Everybody wants to count the money. What it made/lost…whatever. To me, I just think if you punish movies that take risks, guess what you’re gonna get? A bunch of sh*tty homogenized movies, because you cannot do something interesting without taking a big swing.”sponsored content
Digger Division
Alejandro Iñárritu’s film is divisive among audiences, but people like Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Mandy Patinkin, Don Winslow and Ben Stiller are defending the film for being something bold. Our own review by Chris Bumbray was very aware that the movie would antagonize and while he still enjoyed much of it, he wrote, “One thing I will say is that Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s film is confrontational and even antagonistic toward its audience. […] Digger is highly experimental, to the point that it will alienate and turn off mainstream viewers—yet it might come to be regarded as an incredibly bold piece of filmmaking further down the line. […] Does it always work? No. It’s being billed as a comedy, but I didn’t laugh once. Yet it cries out to be seen and features elements—namely Cruise’s performance—that are nothing short of masterful. It gives you a lot to chew on and doesn’t always work, but it’s nonetheless a must-see, even if I wouldn’t blame anyone reading this for hating it.”
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed