129 Facts About Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck's accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup, the principal award given to actors at the Venice Film Festival.

Ben Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi .

Ben Affleck later appeared in the independent coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused and various Kevin Smith films, including Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma .

Ben Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Good Will Hunting, which they starred in.

Ben Affleck then established himself as a leading man in studio films, including the disaster film Armageddon, the war drama Pearl Harbor, and the thrillers The Sum of All Fears and Changing Lanes .

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Ben Affleck then directed, co-wrote and starred in the crime drama The Town and directed and starred in the political thriller Argo ; both were critical and commercial successes.

Ben Affleck then starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl and played the superhero Batman in the DC Extended Universe, appearing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League and The Flash and making cameo appearances in other films in the series.

Ben Affleck is the co-founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a grantmaking and advocacy-based nonprofit organization.

Ben Affleck is a stalwart supporter of the Democratic Party.

Ben Affleck's family moved to Massachusetts when he was three, living in Falmouth, where his brother Casey was born, before settling in Cambridge.

Ben Affleck's mother, Christopher Anne "Chris" Boldt, was a Harvard-educated elementary school teacher.

Ben Affleck's father was "very difficult", and Affleck felt a sense of "relief" at the age of 11 when his parents divorced, and his father exited the family home.

Ben Affleck's father continued to drink heavily and eventually became homeless, spending two years living on the streets of Cambridge.

When Ben Affleck was 16, his father entered a rehabilitation facility in Indio, California.

Ben Affleck lived at the facility for twelve years to maintain his sobriety and worked there as an addiction counselor.

Ben Affleck's mother saved his wages in a college trust fund and hoped her son would ultimately become a teacher, worrying that acting was an insecure and "frivolous" profession.

When Ben Affleck was 13, he filmed a children's television program in Mexico.

Ben Affleck learned to speak Spanish during a year spent travelling around the country with his mother and brother.

Ben Affleck became close friends with fellow student Matt Damon, whom he had known since the age of eight.

Ben Affleck spent a few months studying Spanish at the University of Vermont, chosen because of its proximity to his then-girlfriend, but he left after fracturing his hip while playing basketball.

At 18, Ben Affleck moved to Los Angeles, studying Middle Eastern affairs at Occidental College for a year and a half.

Ben Affleck worked "sporadically" on Mimi from the age of eight to fifteen in both Massachusetts and Mexico.

Ben Affleck played Patrick Duffy's son in the television film Daddy, made an uncredited appearance as a basketball player in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, and had a supporting role as a prep school student in School Ties .

Ben Affleck's first starring film role was as an aimless art student in the college drama Glory Daze, with Stephen Holden of The New York Times remarking that his "affably mopey performance finds just the right balance between obnoxious and sad sack".

Ben Affleck then played a bully in filmmaker Kevin Smith's comedy Mallrats and became friends with Smith during the filming.

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Ben Affleck had begun to worry that he would be relegated to a career of "throwing people into their lockers", but Smith wrote him a lead role in the romantic comedy Chasing Amy .

Success of 1997's Good Will Hunting, which Ben Affleck co-wrote and acted in, marked a turning point in his career.

Ben Affleck asked Affleck to act out the scenes with him in front of the class and, when Damon later moved into Affleck's Los Angeles apartment, they began working on the script in earnest.

Jay Carr of The Boston Globe wrote that Ben Affleck brought "a beautifully nuanced tenderness" to his role as the working-class friend of Damon's mathematical prodigy character.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer convinced him that Ben Affleck would be a star, but he was required to lose weight, become tanned, and get his teeth capped before filming began.

Ben Affleck then appeared as a small-town sheriff in the supernatural horror film Phantoms.

Ben Affleck starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature, playing a groom whose attempts to get to his wedding are complicated by his free-spirited traveling companion.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly remarked that Ben Affleck "has the fast-break charm you want in a screwball hero, " while Joe Leydon of Variety praised "his winning ability to play against his good looks in a self-effacing comic turn".

Ben Affleck then appeared opposite Courtney Love in the little-seen ensemble comedy 200 Cigarettes .

Interested in a directorial career, Ben Affleck shadowed John Frankenheimer throughout pre-production of the action thriller Reindeer Games .

Ben Affleck looks as if he has never missed a party or a night's sleep.

Ben Affleck then provided the voice of Joseph in the animated Joseph: King of Dreams.

Ben Affleck reunited with director Michael Bay for the critically derided war drama Pearl Harbor .

Ben Affleck then parodied Good Will Hunting with Damon and Van Sant in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, made a cameo in the comedy Daddy and Them, and had a supporting role in the little-seen The Third Wheel .

Ben Affleck portrayed the CIA analyst Jack Ryan in the thriller The Sum of All Fears .

Ben Affleck became more involved with television and film production in the early 2000s.

Push, Nevada, created, written and produced by Ben Affleck and Bailey, was an ABC mystery drama series that placed a viewer-participation game within the frame of the show.

Ben Affleck was a longtime comic book fan, and, in 1999, had written a foreword for Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil about his love for the character of Daredevil.

Ben Affleck next appeared as a low-ranking mobster in the romantic comedy Gigli, co-starring Lopez.

Ben Affleck was awarded the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

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In 2007, Ben Affleck made his feature film directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, a crime drama set in a working-class Boston neighborhood, starring his brother Casey as a private investigator searching for a young abductee.

Ben Affleck played a congressman in the political thriller State of Play.

David Denby of The New Yorker declared that Ben Affleck "gives his best performance yet", while Richard Corliss of Time found he "nails Bobby's plunge from hubris to humiliation".

Ben Affleck decided to direct the crime drama The Town, an adaptation of Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves.

Ben Affleck re-wrote the screenplay and starred in the film as a bank robber.

Ben Affleck soon began work on his next directorial project, Argo, for Warner Bros.

Ben Affleck directs the hell out of it, nailing the quickening pace, the wayward humor, the nerve-frying suspense.

Ben Affleck himself won the Golden Globe Award, Directors Guild of America Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Director, becoming the first director to win these awards without a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.

Ben Affleck reprised his role as Batman later that year, making a brief cameo appearance in Suicide Squad .

Ben Affleck starred as an autistic accountant in the action thriller The Accountant, which was an unexpected commercial success.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wondered why Ben Affleck, "looking appropriately dead-eyed and miserable, " committed himself to the film.

Live by Night, which Ben Affleck wrote, directed, co-produced, and starred in, was released in late 2016.

Ben Affleck noted that one of the last action scenes "is so wonderfully staged, its action crisp and easy to follow, that it reminds you what skill Affleck has with the camera".

Ben Affleck later described it as a "difficult" on-set experience.

Ben Affleck stepped down as director, writer and, ultimately, as the star of The Batman, saying he "couldn't crack it" and no longer felt "passionate" about the story.

Ben Affleck played a supporting role as a diplomat in Dee Rees's political thriller The Last Thing He Wanted .

Ben Affleck's starring role as a recovering alcoholic in the sports drama The Way Back was widely praised.

Ben Affleck relapsed during pre-production in 2018 and the movie was shot in the days after he left rehab; Affleck agreed to put his salary in escrow and was accompanied to set by a sober coach.

Ben Affleck received a Best Actor nomination at the 2021 Critics' Choice Awards.

Ben Affleck played a hedonistic aristocrat in Ridley Scott's medieval drama The Last Duel; he co-wrote the movie's screenplay with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener.

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Ben Affleck has filmed cameo appearances as Batman in both Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Flash, and will make a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith's Clerks III.

Ben Affleck has written op-eds about issues facing eastern Congo for the Washington Post, Politico, the Huffington Post, Time, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Ben Affleck has appeared as a discussion panelist at many events, including at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Global Philanthropy Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative.

In 2007, Ben Affleck was the keynote speaker at Kindregan's high school graduation ceremony in Fairfax, Virginia.

In 2013, in celebration of Kindregan's 25th birthday and "15 years of friendship with Joe and his family, " Ben Affleck and Garner matched donations made to the A-T Children's Project.

Ben Affleck appeared in CinemAbility, a documentary film which explores Hollywood's portrayals of people with disabilities.

Ben Affleck is a supporter of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Ben Affleck filmed public service announcements for the organization in both 2009 and 2014.

Ben Affleck made an appearance at the Greater Boston Food Bank in 2007, and at a Denver food bank in 2008.

Ben Affleck is a vocal supporter of the Los Angeles-based homelessness charity Midnight Mission.

Ben Affleck later narrated a documentary, Occupation, about a sit-in organized by the Harvard Living Wage Campaign.

Ben Affleck spoke at a 2007 press conference at Boston's City Hall in support of SEIU's unionization efforts for the city's low-paid hospital workers.

Ben Affleck was a longtime supporter of legalizing gay marriage, saying in 2004 that he hoped to look back on the marriage debate "with some degree of embarrassment for how antiquated it was".

Ben Affleck appeared alongside his gay cousin in a 2005 Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays print advertising campaign.

Ben Affleck appeared at a press conference with New York Senator Chuck Schumer in 2002, in support of a proposed Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Act.

Ben Affleck engaged in a discussion about the relationship between liberal principles and Islam during a 2014 appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Ben Affleck appeared alongside then-Senator Barack Obama at a 2006 rally in support of Proposition 87, which sought to reduce petroleum consumption in favor of alternative energy.

Ben Affleck appeared in a global warming awareness video produced by the Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2007.

Also that year, Ben Affleck admitted he was not "particularly good at being green" while, in 2014, he named "a 1966 Chevelle" as his guilty pleasure.

In 2016, Ben Affleck filmed an endorsement for Rezpect Our Water, an online petition to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

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Ben Affleck registered to vote as a Democrat in 1992, and has campaigned on behalf of several Democratic presidential nominees.

Ben Affleck supported Al Gore in the final weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign, attending rallies in California, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

Ben Affleck was involved in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry.

Ben Affleck took part in a voter registration public service announcement, and traveled with Kerry during the opening weekend of his Believe in America Tour, making speeches at rallies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Ben Affleck appeared alongside the then-Senator at a 2006 rally, introducing him as "the most galvanizing leader to come out of either party, in my opinion, in at least a decade".

Ben Affleck donated to Obama's presidential campaign in 2007, and hosted two fundraisers for the candidate during the 2008 Democratic Primary.

Ben Affleck did not actively campaign for Obama's reelection in 2012, though he still supported him.

Ben Affleck first met Clinton at Camp David in 1998 and, when she was a Senate candidate in 2000, he introduced her at a Cornell University rally and helped fundraise for her campaign.

Ben Affleck pointed to the First Lady's work with children, women and "working families".

Ben Affleck supported Obama during the 2008 Democratic Primary, noting that Clinton had "moved toward the center" during the campaign.

Ben Affleck donated to Clinton's campaign fund during the 2016 Democratic Primary.

Ben Affleck made donations to the presidential campaigns of both Dennis Kucinich and Wesley Clark in 2003.

In 2006, Ben Affleck contributed to Cory Booker's Newark mayoral campaign, and introduced Congressmen Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy at rallies in Connecticut.

Ben Affleck donated to the 2008 Congressional campaign of Pennsylvania's Patrick Murphy, and to the 2010 Senate campaign of Kirsten Gillibrand.

Ben Affleck hosted a 2012 fundraiser for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, endorsed her in a Progressive Change Campaign Committee video, and made a campaign donation.

Ben Affleck donated to the campaign of Senate candidate Kamala Harris in 2015 and the Congressional campaign of Melissa Gilbert in 2016.

In 2019, Ben Affleck donated to the presidential campaigns funds of both Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and hosted a fundraiser for Booker.

In 2012, political pundits and Democratic strategists including Bob Shrum and Tad Devine speculated that Ben Affleck was considering running for a Massachusetts Senate seat.

Ben Affleck was married to actress Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018.

In 2013, Ben Affleck and Garner hosted an event for lawmakers at their home in support of a bill that would protect celebrities' children from harassment by photographers; their six-year-old daughter made a speech about her personal experiences.

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In 2014, Ben Affleck argued in favor of United Kingdom-style legislation which requires media outlets to blur children's faces in published photos.

Ben Affleck has said there are "real practical dangers" involved in paparazzi attention, citing Garner's longtime stalker, Steven Burky, who was arrested in December 2009 while trying to blend in with paparazzi outside their daughter's preschool.

Ben Affleck was charged with two counts of stalking, to which he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ben Affleck began dating actress Gwyneth Paltrow in October 1997 after meeting at a Miramax dinner, and they later worked together on Shakespeare in Love .

Ben Affleck had a long-distance relationship with New York-based television producer Lindsay Shookus from mid-2017 to mid-2018; they briefly dated again in early 2019.

Ben Affleck dated Cuban actress Ana de Armas, whom he met on the set of Deep Water in the fall of 2019, from early 2020 to early 2021.

Ben Affleck's paternal uncle was an addict who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Ben Affleck attended Al-Anon support meetings as a child due to his father's addiction issues.

Ben Affleck's mother sent him to an Outward Bound wilderness camp for at-risk teenagers, having first considered a residential recovery program.

Ben Affleck became sober in his mid-twenties, stating in a 1998 interview that alcohol was "dangerous" for him.

Ben Affleck received residential treatment for addiction in 2001 and maintained his sobriety for a "couple of years" afterwards.

Ben Affleck returned to residential treatment in 2017 and, following a publicly documented relapse and intervention, again in 2018.

Ben Affleck has both anxiety and depression, and has taken antidepressants since age 26.

Ben Affleck was one of many celebrities, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, who took part in Molly Bloom's high-stakes poker games in the mid-2000s.

In 2014, Ben Affleck was asked to refrain from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, after a series of wins aroused suspicion that he was counting cards, which is a legal gambling strategy, though frowned upon by casinos.

Ben Affleck has repeatedly denied tabloid reports of a gambling addiction.

Ben Affleck came from Protestant ancestors, but his family was not religious.

In 2015, Ben Affleck began attending weekly Methodist church services in Los Angeles with his family.

Ben Affleck appeared on the PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots in 2014.

In 2009, the New England Historic Genealogical Society discovered that Ben Affleck is an 11th cousin of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

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Ben Affleck tried to play it like he was politely moving me out of the way.

Ben Affleck's never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone.

Ben Affleck has appeared in more than 50 films, and won many accolades throughout his career as an actor, writer, and director.

Ben Affleck first gained recognition as a writer when he won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with Matt Damon; Affleck remains the youngest person ever to win a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, at 25 years old.