Ben Affleck has come a long way in the nearly 10 years since he and Matt Damon won an Academy Award. He's had more flops than blockbusters, a high-profile romance with Jennifer Lopez, and a daughter, Violet, with his wife Jennifer Garner. Now Affleck is staking his career on his new film Gone Baby Gone, a career he now admits was sidelined by bad script choices and his relationship with Lopez. In November's Details, the 35-year-old actor discusses his directorial debut, leaving Los Angeles, and how his life has evolved since Good Will Hunting. Some highlights:On dating JLo: "It was probably bad for my career. What happens is this sort-of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you go only once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody. I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and [the media] mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that. Then, in concert with some movies that didn't work..."
On Gone Baby Gone: "I feel like [the film] is the linchpin for my life. My career. I have a lot riding on it. I want [the film] to work. Badly. I mean, a shitty movie comes out on 2,800 screens? I've been there and it's embarrassing."
On his directorial debut: "Listen, I've gone out and directed a movie and made it really f**king good. If the movie's good, people will like it and go see it. All the rest of it is bullshit."
On what's at stake: "It's pretty simple. If people don't go see it, I'm f**ked."
On living in LA: "I'd be surprised if I'm still living here in a couple of years. Professionally it would be difficult. But that's not as important as that other thing."
