“I think Matt trusts you now”: Ben Affleck Was Intimidated By Best Friend Matt Damon For Good Reason
In the recent episode of “Directors-on-Directors” interview series by Variety, Ben Affleck and Michael B. Jordan talked about the beginning of their close friendship. During the conversation, Jordan revealed how the Gone Girl star came to help him with advice after his film Fruitvale Station along with his lifelong friend Matt Damon.
Jordan added how Ben praised his work and told him how his life is “getting ready to change.” The Air director added how the experience gets lonely when one enters this industry alone unlike he did with Damon. The actors-turned-directors talked about how they both love the brotherhood-like relationship they have between them.
Michael is known for playing ‘Oscar Grant’ in Fruitvale Salvation and his terrific performances in the Creed films and Black Panther. He made his directorial debut this year with Creed III, in which the star plays a heavyweight champion ‘Adonis Creed.’ In the conversation, he showed his curiosity to know and understand Affleck’s style of directing, especially his friend Matt in his recent directorial “Air.”
Ben Affleck Talks About A “Rewarding” Moment On The Sets Of Air.
When Jordan asked Ben Affleck about what was his experience with directing his friend Matt Damon for the first time in Air, the director told Creed star that he and Damon had worked together previously and he had also acted and written with the Oppenheimer star. (Source: Variety)
Affleck told how frightening the experience was to direct Matt as it was his first time directing The Departed star and he added that Damon has “never seen that part of me before.” It was a daunting situation for the filmmaker as “Matt has worked with Spielberg, Scorsese, and the Coen brothers.” Ben added, “Now in his mind, he’s going to kind of be holding me up against these other experiences.” There was a kind of insecurity about the lack of confidence that Ben was facing on the set.
But, when the film’s cinematographer Bob Richardson noticed Matt’s comfort with Affleck’s direction. He added that Bob went to him on the third or the fourth day of filming and told the Argo director “I think Matt trusts you now,’ to which Affleck tells he replied, “I think so too.” The actor-turned-director said that it was a beautiful and a “rewarding” moment for him. And that brought his confidence back with the comfort of directing his friends without any insecurity of something going wrong.
Air is a biographical sports drama based on the origin of the Air Jordan shoe line, of which a Nike employee tries to make a deal with professional basketball player Michael Jordon. Ben Affleck directed and wrote the film in which he plays Phil Knight along with Matt Damon, who plays Sonny Vaccaro.
What Are The Notable Works of Affleck That Brought Him Recognition Worldwide?
Ben Affleck started his career as a child actor where he appeared in numerous television shows and made his first feature film appearance by playing a leading role in Rich Wilkes’s 1995 comedy film Glory Daze. The actor won an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for Good Will Hunting which he wrote with Matt Damon in which he played Will Hunting, while Damon portrayed Chuckie Sullivan.
Affleck received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland in 2006. He made his directorial debut with a neo-noir crime thriller Gone Baby Gone, which was based on Dennis Lehane’s 1998 novel by the same name.
Ben is also known for his directorial film Argo (2012), which is an adaptation of a 1999 memoir of Toney Mendez The Master of Disguise, and an article “The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran,” published at Wired Magazine by Joshuah Bearman and Nicholas Thompson. The actor received three Academy Awards for his film under ‘Best Picture,’ ‘Best Film Editing’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay.’
His other notable works include Gone Girl by David Fincher and his portrayal of Batman aka Bruce Wayne in DC’s Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Justice League and Zack Synder’s Justice League.
