The Tender Bar | Ben Affleck happy not to play the young first

(Los Angeles) Ben Affleck is happy that he no longer has to play young first and now enjoys playing more thoughtful and deeper characters that he can tap into his life experiences, both good and bad.

Hollywood superstar rose to fame with her film nearly 25 years Good will hunting where Robin Williams camped the mentor of young prodigy Matt Damon. The two young men, childhood friends, had won the Oscar for best screenplay at the time.

Co-author and actor of the film, Ben Affleck is now 49 years old, but has not seen the time pass. “When I look at myself in the mirror, I always expect to see a thirty-something,” he told AFP.

“Unfortunately, that’s never the case,” smiles the actor.

“Today, I am not far from Robin (Williams), even older than him when he played this role” in Good will hunting. “It’s shocking,” he explains.

Ben Affleck recognizes however appreciating to be able to play characters which “rolled their bumps”, like this eccentric uncle, but clairvoyant which he interprets in The Tender Bar, in American theaters on Friday.

These characters “are not necessarily the central protagonist, and this is often a good thing”, believes the artist.

In films, heroes “basically have to limit themselves to a number of virtues in order for audiences to identify with them. It helps to simplify them in a way that makes them difficult to interpret realistically ”.

“The more imperfect people are, the more interesting I find them, in a way,” says Affleck.

Just four years ago, the actor donned the Batman costume in Justice league, a performance that did not thrill fans of the superhero.

During this period, he again struggled against his old demons of alcohol and divorced actress Jennifer Garner, as many episodes scrutinized by the tabloid press, like the rest of his private life.

But Ben Affleck has since kicked off a sort of artistic renaissance, with deeper and nuanced roles like this alcoholic basketball coach mourning the death of his son in The Way Back, released in 2020.

This year, he distinguished himself in supporting roles, The Tender Bar but also in the medieval film by Ridley Scott The Last Duel where he embodies an aristocrat with a weakness for well-watered orgies.

“I don’t think we can make a film around my character in The Last Duel, because it is simply obnoxious. But it remains a very interesting challenge for an actor to try to find such a character and to infuse him with humanity, ”he analyzes.

The race for roles

In The Tender Bar, which will air on the Amazon Prime platform from January 7, Affleck plays a bartender who tries to portray a father role model for his young, intellectually very bright nephew, abandoned by his father.

Uncle Charlie did not study, but he does his best to instill in the young “JR” values ​​full of proletarian common sense, advocating respect for women and warning him of the dangers of alcohol.

In an interview, George Clooney, who directed the film, expressed his pride in seeing “an actor who cuts his teeth on a very good role, because that does not happen often”.

The film was received rather lukewarm, but Ben Affleck’s performance was picked up by critics and earned him a Golden Globe nomination this week.

The actor has taken a step back, however, and these things don’t seem “as important as they once were.”

In Hollywood, there is a tendency “to run frantically for the next role, ignoring everything else”. Yet “the phone may stop ringing” suddenly, he notes.

Far from the “cacophony” of social networks, Ben Affleck says he has learned to assess success for himself, against his own criteria.

All the more reason to accept “more intimate” roles that allow him to use his life course, positive or negative, “to become a better performer, screenwriter or director”.