Ben Affleck is an Oscar award-winning actor, director and writer. His new movie “The Accountant 2” is in theaters this Friday 4/25. Ben Affleck joins Theo to talk about making movies in the age of social media, his thoughts on all the unwanted paparazzi attention he gets, and what he values most about being a dad. Ben Affleck: https://x.com/BenAffleck ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code THEO for new customers to play $5, get $50 in Pick Six credits. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. https://draftkings.com Visible: Go to http://visible.com to make the switch to Visible. True Classic: Go to https://trueclassic.com/THEO to upgrade your wardrobe and save on True Classic. Nutrafol: Go to http://nutrafol.com/men and use code THEO to get $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping. ------------------------------------------------- Gambling Problem? Call one eight hundred gambler. Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit c c p g dot org in Connecticut. Must be eighteen plus, age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick6 not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Void where prohibited. One per new customer. Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable Pick Six Credits that expire in fourteen days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick six dot draftkings dot com slash promos. ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [email protected] Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/ Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Ben Affleck and what is his new movie about?
Like I can remember a long time ago, you know, years and years ago, like I really had a lot of empathy for Britney Spears because I remember that it seemed like it's not somebody that I I knew or hung out with. But I just like everybody else. You see all this shit that comes through. And I but having had my own experience myself, I knew like these are people are following her around.
in a time where she may or may not have been having difficulty. I don't know. Cause I don't know her, but I do know that the, the cycle of having people harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you. It kind of seemed like that itself was kind of whipping up the whole thing into a tizzy. So it's, It's like they're not helping. Well, yeah. And they're kind of poking a stick at it.
Look, look at it. That's where it felt kind of like that's the first time I thought this is kind of a weird kind of unintentional, I think, culturally, but kind of collective cruelty where. What's taken out of the image that you see are the people around waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it or whatever. And all you see is the growling animal or whatever it is.
But a part of that is because somebody's coming around and hitting on it or whatever to make it get active. And that's where you think, OK, well, this isn't really news. It's not even real. It's not what would be happening if this effect wasn't taking place. Yeah.
And that's where I thought, OK, you know, the sort of wise thing to do is to just sort of like maintain one's perspective and try to remove yourself a little bit. It doesn't which is what I would like to do. I think there's this sense that that like if you see someone's picture all the time, they must want you to be seeing. Right. Right. Which is not the case at all for me. I'm self-conscious.
I don't really want you to be seeing that at all. any reason for it as an actor it's no good for you because I don't really want people if they watch a movie to be like that's not him because I saw him yesterday at lunch and I know he's who he really is it gets in the way of you being able to create like the illusion it's
Really hard work to create the illusion that this person, like the character in The Accountant 2, for example, is a real person in a real circumstance. And in order to get the audience to care about it, to laugh, to find it exciting and empathize with the character, they have to suspend disbelief. That's harder if you're constantly being shown something else. So I think it gets in the way.
It makes it harder to be an actor. And it's also just – It's also not good for you. People start to resent you if they see you too much, no matter whether or not you're trying to be seen. You go, no, no, I don't want to do this. And nonetheless, like I remember 20 years ago going through an experience where I was like, it feels to the world like I'm trying to shove myself in their face. Ah.
And nobody likes that, right? Nobody wants to be the camera hog, the guy who's trying to get a bunch of attention.
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Chapter 2: How does Ben Affleck view aging and vanity?
I'm medium school, I think.
I'm middle school. Yes, exactly. I am a seventh grader.
That's it. Oh, dude. Yeah. I don't even think of it. I don't know if I graduated that when some of them, they let you skip, I guess, if you're, you know, depending on what county you're in, but they hold you back. Um, bro, the scariest thing was when like the dumb bully kid got held back and you're like, you had to stick around in your grade.
And you're like, bro, I remember we got word six, 10 and in like sixth grade, dude, we got word that Damien had gotten held back and people were like, Oh hell no, dude. We cannot do Damien again. Hold me back, too. We cannot do Damien again. Like, Damien has to go out to pasture wherever they put these kids that leave sixth grade. And they're like, Damien's coming back.
Finish their education at sixth grade. Shut him down, dude. Tase him or something. You know, put a tire spike when he's leaving out of his driveway in the morning. But Damien cannot come back.
but yeah it is interesting and it is kind of a sickness I think a lot of people see that stuff as a sickness these days but I do think it's fascinating about the suspension of disbelief and that that was something that used to be amazing about celebrities is like you never got to see them right and so you only got to see them and actors and you only got to see them on screen and in this way and so you really envision them that way I mean you would almost be shocked if you saw a celebrity in person or an actor in person who didn't like Indiana Jones if he didn't have his hat and whip
going to say that is that when I was a kid I kind of thought Harrison Ford was that guy you know what I mean like that's what Harrison Ford I think he's probably the biggest you know movie star of my childhood and whether it was like you know Indian Jones or Star Wars like he was the guy and I kind of thought he was that guy and so it's a little weird to see that guy just like
you know, in his sneakers and his kind of raincoat walking around Brentwood. It's sort of like, of course it's disappointing or it's disillusioning or something.
Cause you, you have this thing in your mind that's people went to a, you know, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas went to a whole, you know, use all their talent, went to a bunch of work to make this dude look like Indiana Jones and Han Solo. And I think what I've seen now is like I actually don't even want to see the actors that I really like.
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Chapter 3: What are Ben Affleck's thoughts on Hollywood and paparazzi culture?
you know, talk shows and appearances, right? Like it's not a coincidence because when they do their presentation in the boardroom for Comcast to their shareholders, they go, look, we make these movies, we spend a lot of money and then we get the stars and we plug them into all of our other shows that we also own. And there's a lot of synergy, so on and so forth. The,
The idea, though, is like, OK, there's that's a kind of a tax that you end up sort of paying on your sort of life and the one and on this thing that you're trying to build, which is something that connects with people and moves them and that they want to go out to a fucking movie theater and pay good money to see. And it makes it a little bit harder.
than to have to kind of go around and do all that other stuff and be like, okay, well, that's not who I really am. And to try to sort of be interesting and relevant in some other way that isn't really what you kind of even wanted to do. And so you're right. It's sort of part Hollywood and also kind of Hollywood adjacent.
And it is eating its – it does eat its tail. In a way. Because the acting and the creation, it's like looking at the beauty of a lake, right? It's like this is picturesque and this is like – how they meant the waves to look.
And there's a current here and there's an inflow and outflow and something landed in the water over here and left a ripple and something else is, this is the B story and there's a ripple, but then it's this under, it's this, all this stuff under it. And it's almost starting to like kind of drain its own lake in a way.
It's a good metaphor. Yeah. Like the, the movie as the kind of lake and the underneath of what's both, what goes into it and what happens behind the scenes and also what's, what it takes is, And it does kind of like, it's interesting, like, yeah, if you overtax it, it lowers the lake and all of a sudden it doesn't look like a beautiful lake.
It starts to look like the low country marsh and it pulls down. You start to see all the black mud around the edges and the muck. And that's, yeah, I don't know how to kind of balance that. But as a director, you know, you're right. Like, I would say that's the... way, the principal way I've always kind of looked at this stuff.
So it used to be that you, you had an actor and you had people knew less about them. And now a part of even casting for me is what do people think or of and expect this person to do and, or be, and how can I both, I have to rely on that and use that, but I also have the opportunity to kind of subvert that in a way. And, and so you have to be mindful, not just of the story you're telling,
but what does the audience bring into the theater with them or or when they turn on television you know expect that's dude that's yeah i think that's advanced thinking to be honest with you i really do it's just uh learned by lived experience mostly you know find out like i even often make mistakes you know like if i sometimes i found if i sort of
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Chapter 4: How does social media affect actors and audience perception?
He did this movie Warrior. Warrior is with the boxer? Jake Gyllenhaal? No. Why am I forgetting his name? The dude from Venom. Tom Hardy.
Oh, yeah. And Nick Nolte. People love him.
And he did Miracle, which is about the Olympic hockey team.
Oh, yeah. Against Canada. America versus Canada, I think. Or something. Russia. Right. Yeah, Russia, the original. Oh, no, Russia's like dirty Canada. Yeah, it's kind of like, and that's, yeah, no offense to anybody who's Russian, but also, you know it. So it's not like we're keeping secrets from them. We're advertising that. So is it, would you go work on it?
So if you and Jon Bernthal, you guys are buddies, you get along well? I love the guy. Yeah, I knew him.
I liked him. So that makes it fun. We came really close with him on this movie. Yeah, we just hit it off really well. And it's like, I'm sure you experienced this in your line of work. Some people you kind of just hit it off with. It works. It's great. Like, oh, my God. You don't even know kind of how it happens. And sometimes the chemistry is just not there.
It's got Tim Dillon. Have you ever seen Tim Dillon? No. What about him? Oh, you just got to watch him, dude. He's so funny. He's just one of the funniest guys he ever made. He just made me think like he's somebody that's really funny. Shane Gillis.
Yeah, Shane Gillis is funny. But I mean, so what I'm saying, like for you personally, right? Like you might find that like you sitting down talking to somebody works, even if somebody's great, they might come in and you guys just don't hit it off or you might be great. In this case, I really felt like with John, like we got really lucky and we both kind of – it's like a two-hander.
It's like a kind of odd couple sort of – because I'm very reserved, very straight. He's very tough and ballsy and so like – you know what I mean? And so we're kind of opposites, but we love each other, but we're kind of brothers. We drive each other crazy and we're frustrated with each other and there's kind of –
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Chapter 5: Why did Ben Affleck decide to start directing?
There's not as many male leaders and not as many male teachers as there were. There's a space where we're missing a gap of mentorship from male to male because a lot of people, well, some people were pedophiles or whatever, but outside of those people, it's like there's not as many. Let's rule those fuckers out. Those guys are out.
Well, also anybody pop onto, he's driving around taking pictures of kids. Anybody else would be arrested for taking a photo of a kid in public.
But, but, and I think absolutely boys need, um, and so do girls like you need to see that there's good men. You need to understand that good men are accountable and tell the truth. They can say they're sorry when they make a mistake. They're strong. You can rely on them. They're funny like that. They can show you strength and love and,
And all this stuff that is good and beautiful and the people you want to be drawn to in your future life about masculinity, you want to know and see that modeled. And if you don't, First of all, there are children who are expecting, because there's children expecting to have that. If you don't, it fucks you up. And if you don't see what that looks like, you don't know kind of what to look for.
Oh, yeah, dude. Did you have a fun, like, do you have a memory of your dad that was, like, fun for you? I'm trying to think of one. My dad would, dude. My dad was, like, my dad was really old when I was born. And so my dad was 70 when I was born, right? He was born in 1910.
Dad was a serious guy.
Yeah. I wish he had some money, which was crazy. Because usually if a woman's hooking up with an older guy, he's got some money. He's got some money. What did your dad have going for him? It was not money, dude. It wasn't money? It must have been charming. He didn't have a bank. Listen, he was very charming. My dad was very, very charming. But he would take me to the –
he would like go sometimes have a beer by like this bar at the railroad tracks. And he would like, let me walk on the bar. He'd like, and they had like these little bowl of chocolates or whatever. And if the bartender, I remember if I danced good, she would like give me some, some of the chocolates or whatever. And he'd be like, go wiggle for chocolates or whatever.
And I remember, I just remember, I think. You're like when my dad pimped me out. That was a good time. Yeah. Well, he was just pimping me for confections or sugars. It was kind of an outtake from that movie Chocolat, if you've ever seen that. But yeah, he would be like, go wiggle for chocolates. And I just remember that was one thing that I remember. Anyway, sorry. I made that about me.
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Chapter 6: What challenges and rewards come with working on a movie set?
And they come back around, you know what I mean? Do you think – I auditioned for a Project Greenlight movie that you guys had years ago. Really? Yeah, it was one where there was like a guy in a wheelchair and there were like dangerous people were coming in like you were trapped in a bar or something. Feast, maybe the horror movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just remembered that. That's crazy.
You auditioned for it? Really? Yeah. Oh, I was not any good. That's wild. I'm not a good at it. I think it's a bad idea to do that. But anyway, I just remembered that. It popped in my head. Do you still have Project Greenlight? No.
It's, um, no, it's not, I mean, it's not currently, we did it with the company we have them, but we, we are not doing it now. And we took it, we, we had it on for a while back then and then brought it back. And it's interesting. I really liked it. And I thought it was interesting that like, cause it's because that's what I do. And I know, okay, that's tricky. Like it's hard.
You got all this drama that comes up on a movie, but when we had like a million dollars to make the movie and everybody like a million dollars, like that's like nothing. That's nothing. And now it's almost setting people up.
It would kind of just be like, then you'd just be doing a show about people getting into arguments and smashing things and having a breakdown because you can't really even do it for a million dollars.
Yeah, times have changed.
Unions and wages and all that stuff. But I really liked that idea of that show. Because to me, it was about also creating opportunities for people that are outside Hollywood.
Oh, that's what it felt like.
Who could come in and be like, look, I know what I'm doing. I want to do something. And then you got to like, okay, well, let's see what you can do. Do you think Tom Brady's good as an announcer? Yeah, I think Tom's good as an announcer. I think he's... Look. Me too, dude. I think he's really smart, obviously, about football.
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