The Film Forum

It's a Wonderful Life: Q&A With Ben Affleck (Continued)

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You've talked a lot about how people have unfairly targeted you as part of an unhealthy celebrity obsession. In terms of your work though, do you think that one or any movie of yours have been unfairly dissed through the years?
No. I mean, I don't care. People pay their money and they're entitled to have their judgments about what movies they liked and which they didn't. I don't really get too much into going on internet movie sites and magazines and joining the arguments about other people's movies or rating them ... It's a subjective medium, obviously. There is no "better." It's not like you die and go to heaven and find out that in fact 'Reservoir Dogs' is actually better than 'Pulp Fiction.' There is no answer.

People's taste, whether it's movies or music, a lot of the time has to do with stuff they like, stuff they're entertained by. But also part of it has to do with the kind of identity they assume. What does this say about me? I'm the kind of person who listens to this music, or I'm the kind of person that likes these types of movies, or I'm the kind of person that votes for this political party or whatever it may be. People are certainly entitled to make whatever judgments they want about movies: my movies, other people's movies. And a lot of times, I've seen the same movie twice and come up with really different ideas about it. Most of the time when I see movies, just having worked on them, I don't usually come away with the one idea about the movie. I usually have a lot of different ideas about the many different elements of the movie. Everyone has to have their own idea about it and I hope people like and enjoy movies that I'm in and I certainly try really hard, most people do. But the thing about movies is that you try really hard and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, and oftentimes you're working just as hard on a movie like 'Hollywoodland' as you are on a movie that's a complete f***ing dog. And it's oftentimes hard to tell the difference. Sometimes it's just in the hands of the gods.

Can you look back at 'Hollywoodland' and think its your best performance? Or is it too hard for you to judge your own work?
It's hard to say. It's one of the ones that I really like. There are performances that I really like that are in movies that didn't work as well too. But it's also hard, whether you are looking at a performance in the context of the whole movie, or some people say you can't really isolate a performance outside of a whole movie because, what does that really mean? How could a performance work but a movie not work? Some people look at a movie like 'Dry White Season' and you have Brando giving a great performance but the movie is not considered one of the great movies. Sometimes it's hard for me to tell the difference between what I got out of it as an actor or the time that I spent on it and what ends up happening. I really, really loved 'Hollywoodland.' It's one of my favorites. I loved doing it. I learned a lot as an actor. I had a spectacular time. It's one of my all-time favorite experiences and definitely something that I'm really proud of and really proud to have people see.

What were some of the best performances from other actors that you saw in 2006?
I think the 'Good Shepherd' is an amazing movie. I think the stuff that Matt Damon does in 'The Good Shepherd' is kind of sublime. And because it's so small and kind of refined and nuanced, it's escaped a certain amount of attention. It's so meted out in an elegant way that it doesn't cry out for attention, you have to find it. It's pretty extraordinary. I really liked 'The Lives of Others' and the lead in that, I can't pronounce his name (Ulrich Mühe) but he's spectacular. 'Venus' is one of my favorite movies. I thought Peter O'Toole was fabulous in the movie. I think Roger Michell is one of the great directors working today and Leslie Phillips is great. I thought that woman Jodie Whittaker was great. I just loved that movie. I thought it was really, really good. I liked 'Children of Men' a lot. There were so many movies ... It was a really interesting year. There weren't a lot of giant movies, there were a lot of different things spread out all over the place. There were a lot of little interesting movies along with the big ones. 'Pan's Labyrinth.' That was cool. That was a good movie. I had no idea what to expect. I saw it before everyone was talking about it, hadn't heard anything about it, and basically put it on as an effort to practice my Spanish. Halfway through I was like, this movie's kind of interesting!

What do you think is the most absurd thing about Hollywood?
That's like asking, "What is the hottest thing about the sun?"

Touché. Last question. Who killed George Reeves?
George Reeves killed George Reeves.

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