There’s less bifurcation between studio, indie films: Ben Affleck

By Durga Chakravarty

Singapore, March 9 (IANS) With a career spanning over two decades, Hollywood star Ben Affleck, whose filmography boasts of movies such as "Mallrats", "Dazed and Confused" and "Armageddon", says the bifurcation between independent films and studio releases is less now.

Talking about his career having two pockets with independent and commercial cinema, Affleck told select media, including IANS here: "Now there is less of a bifurcation between studio and independent cinema. People are trying to make movies that are interesting in multiple ways like it used to be in the 1990s and early 2000s... where I kind of started out with 'Chasing Amy', 'Armageddon' and then 'Shakespeare in Love' that was a little bit of both."

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker-actor said he has tried to mix both the sensibilities in his filmography.

"I have tried to fuse the sensibilities of popularity and artistic in my career... That's an interesting challenge..." added Affleck, who has been feted with two Academy Awards.

What is the most futile aspect of being a star?

"You accomplish doing something and people get to know about that, but there's this interesting and bizarre parallel life if you're an actor in movies or television or streaming platform or whatever and you become successful, you kind of become a star in your own reality show in tandem of that that you're not writing and you're not directing and you have very little control over (or you don't necessarily want to participate in).

"You very badly want to be off the show, which is a terrible feeling. It is sort of ridiculous and I understand there's an interest to see drama play out," he added.

Affleck will next be seen in Netflix's original film "Triple Frontier", which is slated to release on March 13. The film, directed by J.C. Chandor, tells the story of five former military officers.

"Triple Frontier" also stars Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal.

Asked about doing away with the idea of toxic masculinity in the post-#MeToo era, Affleck said: "It reflects the hard truth... 95 per cent of the people pointing guns at each other or killing each other are men, that is simply true. This kind of violence is perpetrated by men, on men...Not that women aren't victims of violence.... the certain kind of solving problems through violence is demonstrated by men... The director's desire was to examine that with a critical eye."

Almost a decade ago, "Triple Frontier" began as a solo script and was slated to be directed by the movie's screenwriter Mark Boal's frequent collaborator Kathryn Bigelow.

Did the long gestation period of the film affect Affleck?

"I have done fair number of movies in the last 25 years and I can't think of... any of them had a linear path... As a function of this business and the difficulties in getting movies made, you often go through casting and that type of thing... the only difference is the extent of that sort of publicity story.

"If a movie has been around for a long time... there's actually a sign there's something worthwhile in it because people keep coming back to and want it to be made..."

(Durga Chakravarty is in Singapore on an invitation by Netflix. She can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)