Affleck still laughing after 'Gigli' digs, tabloid frenzy

By Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

LOS ANGELES — After being tortured by the tabloids and ripped for "Gigli," no one could blame Ben Affleck if he came into a room full of reporters at a Beverly Hills hotel and let them have it.

Ben Affleck

"I knew 'Gigli' was dog (excrement), you know what I'm saying?" he says shortly after walking in to promote his latest film, the John Woo sci-fi thriller "Paycheck."

"This sucker better pan out for me."

Laughter erupts all around, and Affleck spends the next 20 minutes winning over the group with a mixture of humor and self-deprecation.

Asked if he uses the demeanor to disarm his critics, he cracks, "There's no disarming my critics, my friend. My critics refuse to be disarmed. They're like, 'I'm holding on to this stick.' "

But Affleck says he's not asking anyone to feel sorry for him. The actor who first gained fame with "Good Will Hunting" — winning a screenwriting Oscar with pal and co-star Matt Damon — has built a career as a solid leading man in such big-grossing films as "Pearl Harbor," "The Sum of All Fears" and "Daredevil."

He says his life is "mostly charmed," but "Gigli" taught him that he can't tie his self-esteem to his career.

"It's too up and down a business," he says. "You're going to have some misses. What are you going to do? Go hang yourself in the bathroom?"

Although the actor is talking about "Paycheck," which opens Christmas Day, the conversation inevitably turns to "Gigli" — the infamously bad caper movie starring Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

Last summer, in the weeks leading up to the film's release, Affleck and Lopez dominated the tabloids, fueling a media feeding frenzy that culminated with the film being panned by critics.

"In terms of 'Gigli,' look, I'm not entirely dim," Affleck says. "I saw the movie ahead of time and I thought, 'Well, we're in for it; we're going to get whacked.'

"I knew that if it was two other random actors, it would just sort of quietly get zipped away. Like, there were four or five other movies that did zero business and just kind of went away. You're like, 'Did that come out?' And it would have been a 'Did that come out?' "

He also says he and Lopez erred in whipping up the hype around their personal lives.

"Jen and I, in some ways, made a mistake where we thought, 'Hey, we're in love, this is great, we're starring together, whatever,' " he says. "And we were just available and happy and lived our normal life. And we're not going to be concerned with this other stuff. And I felt like, I'd been through it with Gwyneth (Paltrow) — how bad could it get? How much can they do?"

While Affleck says the ordeal built his character, he has decided to curtail his lifestyle to keep the paparazzi and tabloids at bay.

"I do change my life now," he says. "I do hide in a backseat of a car. I do try to elude the people as best I can. I try not to end up in any picture at all that I do not want to be in.

"I was going to stand on principle, and ultimately I sort of surrendered that for the sake of a larger quality of life."

He says things are growing worse for celebrities because the tabloids have pushed mainstream media toward more salacious topics. "Yesterday, all you could see on MSNBC was Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton. Don't we have 150,000 soldiers in the Middle East? It's insane."

Affleck is saner these days. ("You're catching me on an upswing, so it's a little disingenuous to suggest I've got the total zen control," he says.)

He says test audiences have responded well to "Paycheck," in which he plays computer expert Michael Jennings, who agrees to have his memory partially erased after completing a secret job.

When Jennings shows up to collect his money, he finds his account empty. He's soon on the run, with only an envelope of everyday items to piece together the past three years.

Affleck even jokes about not being the first choice for the role. Director Woo ("Broken Arrow," "Face/Off") first wanted Damon after seeing him in "The Bourne Identity," in which he plays a spy who loses his memory.

"Matt was really honored to meet John and wanted to work with him," Affleck says. "(But) he was kind of like, 'I just can't do two amnesia pictures or else I'm just going to be "amnesia guy." ' "

Woo sought out Affleck after seeing him in "Changing Lanes." The actor was determined not to disappoint the renowned director, who leads a vanguard of Asian filmmakers who have transformed Hollywood action movies.

Although "Daredevil" required heavy physical training, Affleck worked out constantly for "Paycheck" to make sure he could handle Woo's demanding Hong Kong style.

"The worst thing I could think of happening would be for John to say, 'You're going to do this, this and this,' and me try to do it and look foolish," Affleck says. "And then to be like, 'I can't do it.' And John says (imitating Woo's accent), 'Bring in stuntman. You are failure. Shame.' "

Affleck says he was surprised that Woo was fairly conservative in protecting the actors.

"I think the Hong Kong attitude is to keep the actors safe and kill the stuntmen," jokes Affleck, adding that Woo told him that in Hong Kong, "Stuntman peel hot (bullet) casing from face and they say, 'Ready to go again, sir.' "

Affleck was impressed with Woo's efforts to plan each scene. It was a welcome change from other unnamed directors who use the "shotgun" approach, Affleck said. "They say, 'Well, what we're going to do is just shoot five versions,' " Affleck says.

While Affleck's big movie paychecks inevitably make life easier for him, he also knows that one day, it will all come to an end.

"When the phone stops ringing for me, I'm not sure I'll be too upset about it. I realize I'll get back something I don't have now."