Damn, Ben Affleck Is Good at This

I said it above and I’ll say it again: Damn, Ben Affleck is good at this. On the red carpet at the Sunday premiere of The Tender Bar, a George Clooney joint, he spoke with Extra’s Jennifer Lahmers. Now, red-carpet interviews are often rushed affairs. A journalist gets, like, three minutes—maximum—with an actor, in which time they try to get a short sound bite that feels human and not like the marketing materials. And an actor tries to field increasingly personal questions in a way that brings it back to the movie. Please watch Affleck’s mastery of the form:

He asks after Lahmers, who is soon to give birth, and in the exchange offers some really harmless personal stuff that gives nothing away but feels very himself, with the Boston of it all front and center—he has a childhood friend named Ethan who has four kids. Hello, Ethan! 

He praises his young costar and likens him to his own nine-year-old son.

And eventually, Lahmers goes in for the kill, invoking Jennifer Lopez, his very public girlfriend, though not in name. She says simply, “Now, I’ve never seen you smiling so much before. I wonder who could be responsible for that…” And he says, “I’m very happy. I’m—very happy time in my life. Life is good. I love this movie. The Last Duel, October 15, which I’m really proud of,” also adding that “working for George” Clooney was “a real treat.” He brings it back to the movie. Not only the movie he’s promoting in that moment, but another project he’s promoting simultaneously, The Last Duel with Matt Damon (COVID has thrown release schedules into the air, so a bit of multitasking is perhaps necessary).

Anyway, it’s good to see the man, our shared symbol of dread by nearly no fault of his own, so happy—and at the top of his game in his personal life, on the big screen, and also on the red carpet. Affleck is very good, and isn’t that the most hopeful thing of all? 

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