Ben Affleck has been through a lot of life experiences over the past few years — and he’s better for it.
So he says in a new interview out in The Hollywood Reporter, completed as part of their Actor’s Roundtable series late this month. In it, the 48-year-old actor opens up quite a bit about the real-life experiences that have shaped his career, including having children, and his divorce from ex-wife Jennifer Garner.
Related: Jennifer Garner Expertly Shuts Down Fan’s Pregnancy Question
Comparing his real-life trials and tribulations to one of his most recent movies, 2020’s The Way Back, the popular Argo actor was honest in his assessment of how art has been imitating life in his world.
The actor and single dad said (below):
“For me, the movie was much more about the fact that — whether it’s having lived enough years, having seen enough ups and downs, having had children and divorce — I’m at a point now in my life where I have sufficient life experience to bring to a role to make it really interesting for me. Growing older and having had more intense and meaningful personal experiences has made acting much more interesting for me and in turn made me drawn to the kinds of movies that are about people who are flawed.”
No kidding!
Not that rough life experiences are good, by any stretch of the imagination, but they certainly do bring another dimension to the screen!
Affleck knows as much, and his serious, heart-grabbing work of late has been a nice byproduct of that.
Related: Ana De Armas Deletes Twitter Following Ben Affleck Breakup!
As you’ll recall, he has previously spoken out multiple times about the effect the divorce from Garner has had on him. Last year, while also promoting The Way Back, he told GMA host Diane Sawyer (below):
“I didn’t want to get divorced, I didn’t want to be a divorced person, I really didn’t want to be a split family with my children. It upset me because it meant I wasn’t who I thought I was and that was so painful and so disappointing. In myself.”
And in a separate interview last year with the New York Times, he further echoed those sentiments, adding:
“The biggest regret of my life is this divorce. Shame is really toxic. There is no positive byproduct of shame. It’s just stewing in a toxic, hideous feeling of low self-worth and self-loathing. I drank relatively normally for a long time. What happened was that I started drinking more and more when my marriage was falling apart. This was 2015, 2016. My drinking, of course, created more marital problems.”
No kidding…
It’s refreshing to hear he’s found the silver lining in all of this, though. We suppose it’s good at least something positive came from all this difficulty!
Related: Jen Continues To Support Ben Through His Breakup From Ana De Armas!
As you’ll recall, Affleck and Garner first started dating in 2004, and married the following year. In the years since, they had three children: Violet, now 15, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 8. The couple announced their separation in June of 2015, and eventually finalized their divorce in October 2018.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Share ’em down in the comments (below)…
[Image via Nicky Nelson/WENN/Instar]
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