Like Ben Affleck achieved success at the age of 25 and lost almost everything due to wild life?
Ben Affleck has long entered his name into the list of Hollywood stars first magnitude, but his path to success cannot be called cloudless. After his ascent, very unpleasant failures always awaited him, because of which he almost drowned in wild life and depression. At the same time, even in the darkest times, the actor did not give up and again climbed to the top of the Hollywood Olympus.
As part of a series of articles about the difficult lives of celebrities, Lenta.ru tells how Affleck earned a reputation as an underrated genius, won two Oscars and eventually found his true love, despite alcoholism, gambling addiction and mental disorders.
Sad birthday boy
Ben Affleck’s full name is Benjamin Geza Ben Affleck-Boldt and he turned 51 years old on August 15, 2023. In his sixth decade, he entered the status of a happily married man and a sought-after actor, director and screenwriter in Hollywood. Affleck was publicly congratulated on his birthday by both his colleagues and his beloved wife Jennifer Lopez. In honor of the significant date, the artist posted a cute video on social networks, under which she succinctly wrote: “Dear Ben, happy birthday! I love you!” In the video, Ben finally looked happy and even smiled, but among the actor’s fans there were again those who doubted his mental health.
It is worth noting that in recent years, the Internet has been discussing more not Affleck’s film works, but his personal life and the depression in which he allegedly lives. No wonder the actor became the main character of numerous memes and the living personification of universal sadness.
Frame: the film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
An anonymous source close to the Affleck-Lopez family tried to allay the public’s fears, telling the press that the actor was healthy, maintained his sobriety, and was generally as happy with life as ever.
“Everything in his life is going well. He is happy and contented,” People quoted an insider as saying.
However, this statement did not completely convince Ben’s fans, who remembered that after his divorce from his first wife, Jennifer Garner, he was indeed severely depressed for a long time and led a riotous lifestyle, which is why he almost ruined his career.
Clever Ben Affleck and his best friend Matt Damon
The tenacity with which Affleck always pursued his goals and dealt with failures is enviable. Since childhood, he only wanted to be an actor and, thanks to a friend of his parents who worked in a casting agency, from the age of seven he received small roles in advertising and television shows, but no one took his passion for acting seriously. The only person who shared Ben’s passion for cinema was his best friend Matt Damon, who also dreamed of conquering Hollywood. Having grown up, they even opened a joint bank account, the funds from which were intended for trips to New York for castings.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Photo: Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images
The bosom friends’ dream of an acting career could have remained just a dream, because after graduation Matt entered Harvard, and Ben entered the University of Vermont in the Spanish department, which he soon exchanged for college in Los Angeles, where for some reason he studied politics for a year and a half . However, they both wanted to act in films too much and therefore continued to go to auditions and try out for all the roles in a row.
In the early 1990s, aspiring actors were interrupted by episodes in the crowd and supporting roles in small projects – there was no talk of stable work in Hollywood. Everything changed thanks to the movie Good Will Hunting. The script for the future hit was born from Damon’s study work, which Affleck later brought to mind. Many people immediately became interested in the promising project, but Ben and Matt insisted that they would only sell the script if they both starred in the film. The studio bosses had no desire to get involved with the two no-names.
In desperation, Affleck, through his acquaintances, found contacts of the now infamous producer Harvey Weinstein, and he agreed to fulfill his and Damon’s demands, and at the same time got a big star in the film – Robin Williams. Then there was a tremendous success: “Good Will Hunting” was favored by critics, became a box office hit in 1997, and Matt and Ben received an Oscar and a Golden Globe each for best original screenplay.
At the age of 25, Ben Affleck received his first Oscar and thus became the youngest screenwriter in history to receive this award. He still holds this record to this day.
Taking the coveted figurines, Ben and Matt said: “This is too much for two guys who have never won the lottery.” From that moment on, both artists had no end to offers.
In 1998, Affleck played a handsome driller who travels to an asteroid to save humanity in Michael Bay’s blockbuster Armageddon. For this role, at the director’s request, he got new teeth, lost weight, pumped up and got a tan.
It was real Hollywood like I’ve never seen. Two filming stages were converted into huge asteroid craters, and I didn’t even think about the fact that the plot of the film is absolutely absurd
Ben Affleck
The manipulations with his appearance completely paid off: after the release of “Armageddon,” Affleck became a new sex symbol and became one of the most sought-after and promising young artists in Hollywood.
Until the early 2000s, Ben managed to appear in the most diverse projects – from super-successful to completely failed. His participation in the critically acclaimed films “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Dogma” helped him gain a foothold as a world-famous star. At the same time, in the same years, the frankly unsuccessful romantic comedy “Forces of Nature” appeared in the actor’s filmography, in which he starred with Sandra Bullock, and then the equally disastrous “200 Cigarettes”, where his partner was Courtney Love.
A heartthrob falls into a trap
Affleck’s personal life at the turn of the century was as turbulent as his film career. After breaking up with Cheyenne Rothman, whom he met in school and dated for seven years, Ben began an affair with Gwyneth Paltrow. Their relationship lasted three years and ended on the set of Shakespeare in Love due to the actress’s infidelity. Affleck found solace in the arms of Sandra Bullock, but the romance that began quickly ended just as quickly. They broke up without drama or public showdown.
Ben did not remain in the status of a proud loner for long: in 2002, he began a relationship with singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. Their romance became the main sensation of those years, and the paparazzi literally did not allow the couple to pass. Over the course of two years of his affair with J.Lo, Affleck turned into “Mr. Lopez”, firmly established himself on the covers of all the world’s tabloids and began to go crazy from the popularity that had fallen on him.
The hysteria around “Bennifer,” as the couple was dubbed in the media, and the upcoming celebrity wedding had a negative impact on Affleck’s career. While Lopez was doing great, the actor had one failure after another. Daredevil, Hour of Reckoning, and Playboys did not pay off at the box office and were crushed by critics, and the gangster comedy Gigli, released in 2003, in which the actor played together with Lopez, even brought him the Golden Raspberry. Moreover, this picture turned out to be so bad that it was subsequently recognized by the organizers of Malina as the worst film of the decade. Ben was so crushed by the failures that he even told his friend Matt Damon that he was in the worst situation in his life and could sell magazines, but not movie tickets.
During that period, the actor practically lost control over his life, which is why he felt lost and broken. Unable to withstand the media attention, in 2004, just four days before the wedding, he broke off his engagement to Lopez.
Constant attention played a big role in the fact that our couple broke up. I read every day about how people hate us and don’t want us to be together, and it destroyed our love like poison. It was very toxic and I didn’t want to be a part of it.
Ben Affleck
Another Jennifer
The breakup with Lopez completed another series of failures in Affleck’s career. Gradually, the press attention to his person subsided, and in the same 2004 he began dating actress Jennifer Garner, whom he met on the set of Pearl Harbor. The couple tried to avoid the hype and secretly got married in 2005 on the tiny Caribbean island of Parrot Cay. Friends and relatives of the newlyweds said that the actress managed to pacify her husband. Ben behaved differently with her than with the women he met along the way.
My family helped me organize my life and gave me the opportunity to look at many things from a different angle. Our marriage is not perfect, but Jennifer is the woman who inspires me. She is a truly kind person. He doesn’t wish harm to anyone, doesn’t compete with anyone, doesn’t get angry in vain. In general, I finally arrived where I was destined to come. Before this I was staggering, tossed from side to side, but now I have found peace – I am where I feel good
Ben Affleck
The first years of family life for the couple were truly happy. Jennifer gave birth to Ben’s three children and devoted herself to raising them. He, on the contrary, focused on his career – he began to be more selective in choosing projects as an actor and tried his hand at directing. Both Affleck’s debut directorial project “Gone Baby Gone” and the action film “City of Thieves” were well received by critics, and the political thriller “Operation Argo” returned him to the top of Hollywood Olympus and brought him another Oscar.
One more
It seemed that Ben was back on top both as an actor and as a director, but success and fame again played a cruel joke on him. He began to feel trapped and became depressed, which inevitably affected his relationship with Garner. The actor, who first underwent treatment for alcoholism back in 2001, again became addicted to drinking and gambling.
Ben Affleck once won $800 thousand in an evening at a Las Vegas casino, of which he gave away $150 thousand in tips
Garner tried to fight for her marriage and even insisted that she and Ben go to a family psychologist, but two years of work with a specialist did not bring positive results. Affleck felt unhappy, which is why he drank and gambled more and more.
I drank fairly moderately for a long time, but things got out of control when my marriage began to fall apart. You try to make yourself feel better with food, alcohol, sex, gambling, shopping, but in the end you make your life worse. Then you start abusing it just to forget about your problems. Then comes the real pain. You find yourself in a vicious circle from which you cannot escape.
Ben Affleck
Realizing the futility of trying to save the marriage, Jennifer filed for divorce in 2015. Three years after the start of the divorce process, the former spouses agreed on joint custody of the children and settled all property issues.
The main character of sad memes
Personal problems coincided with another period of disappointment for Affleck in his career. At a time when public ridicule of mental disorders is considered unacceptable, the audience made an exception for the actor and turned him into a hero of Internet memes. In 2014, Affleck tried on the Batman costume for the first time and in black and white photographs that appeared online he looked so sad that he instantly became the butt of jokes.
A couple of years later, something went wrong when the actor and co-star Henry Cavill were interviewed about the film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. When the journalist asked how they felt about criticism, Cavill began to joke something, and Affleck suddenly fell silent and stared doomedly into space. The meme models immediately superimposed the song The Sound of Silence on the video – and the actor became the personification of universal sadness on the Internet.
Ben’s obvious mental problems didn’t stop the paparazzi, who continued to hound him in hopes of more melancholy photos, and a Tumblr page called Ben Affleck Looking Sad popped up, filled with thousands of memes of the sad actor. With the light hand of Internet users, Affleck even took the title of the saddest Hollywood celebrity from Keanu Reeves.
Realizing that he was finally losing control over his own life and becoming increasingly depressed, at the beginning of 2018 the actor went to a rehabilitation center to undergo treatment for alcoholism and gambling addiction.
“I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be. I want my children to know that there is no shame in getting help when you need it. And help those who need it, but are afraid to take the first step,” Affleck wrote on his social networks.
After being discharged from the clinic, Ben joined Alcoholics Anonymous and began dating television producer Lindsay Shookus. Their relationship was interrupted due to the fact that the actor, after a year of sobriety, broke down and started drinking again. After the breakdown, Affleck underwent another course of treatment, completely gave up alcohol and started a new romance. In 2020, at the height of the coronavirus, he went into lockdown together with Cuban actress Ana de Armas, whom he met on the set of the thriller “Deep Waters.” However, along with the pandemic, the relationship of the two celebrities also ended.
“Bennifer 2.0”
Affleck’s breakup with Armas finally did not make the media and netizens want to laugh at the actor and make new memes, but made them worry about the actor’s mental state. They were especially alarmed by the fact that the couple broke up over the phone.
However, this time Affleck did not sink to emotional rock bottom, did not start drinking and gambling, and in general did not worry for too long. Already in April 2021, he reunited with Jennifer Lopez. 17 years after breaking up, the artists decided to give each other a second chance – and did not regret it. During the years of separation, they both matured, became wiser and began to react more calmly to increased media attention.
“It’s amazing that everything happened right now, at that moment in our lives when we can truly appreciate it. Now we have both come to understand ourselves, we feel good and calm, and we are ready for a healthy and happy relationship,” Jennifer Lopez said in an interview
After a year of dating, Affleck proposed to his beloved and presented her with a ring with a rare green diamond worth five million dollars. Three months later, they secretly and without unnecessary witnesses got married in a modest chapel in Las Vegas, and a month after the formal ceremony they held a grand celebration at the actor’s estate in Georgia.
Traditionally, reports appear in the media from time to time about the impending divorce of two celebrities and that they often quarrel, but Mr. and Mrs. Affleck assure that everything is fine with them. Ben still makes memes because he looks sad and bored at public events, but depression is no longer the culprit.
When I’m relaxed, my face looks unhappy. This is how God created me. Don’t punish me for this
Ben Affleck
Despite the fact that Affleck still has a difficult relationship with Hollywood and his own life, he made the right conclusions and, in his own words, “learned much more from failures than from triumphs.” And the marriage with Lopez clearly benefited the actor: he took control of his addictions, got into shape, and managed to remain a good person in the cynical world of the “dream factory.” Having experienced a series of failures in his career, Affleck decided to pursue only projects that were truly interesting to him and, it seems, has finally found happiness – at least, I really want to believe it.
Natalia Obryadina
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