The story of the life and love of Ben Affleck: the actor turned 50

Benjamin Affleck was born on August 15, 1972 in the sunny town of Berkeley near San Francisco. His parents were people of a creative nature, which partly determined the future of little Ben: mother Christina worked as a school teacher of literature, and father Timothy tried to make his way to the stage. After 3 years, another boy appeared in the family, Casey, who later also became a famous actor.

Although it may seem that childhood in a creative family is just a heavenly time for a future star, in reality, everything turned out to be completely different. Timothy became disillusioned with acting and began to drink so much that he soon became a real alcoholic. The family was even forced to move to Massachusetts, because life in California was too expensive for them.

On the other hand, Ben’s mother took care of Ben and brought money home. It was she who instilled in young Affleck a love of art, took him to acting classes, and hired his first tutors. Christina was not happy that her son decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. She hoped that he would become a teacher, but she also did not want to resist the boy’s hobbies.

Affleck began to receive his first roles through acquaintances of his parents. He first appeared on screen as little Tommy in the low-budget social drama Dark End of the Street, when Ben was only 8 years old. Bigger projects followed: the popular educational series Mimi’s Journey, the thriller Hands of a Stranger, a commercial for Burger King, and so on.

Breaking Bad with Matt Damon

Ben’s new life in Massachusetts was the derailment of all his plans for life: he was stuck so far from the capitals of the creative industries with an alcoholic father and a mother who barely makes ends meet. According to the actor, he was so depressed that he even began to think about suicide. Fortunately, what at first seemed like a curse, in the end turned out to be a gift of fate. After all, it was here that Affleck met the man who became his best friend for the rest of his life – Matt Damon.

They lived just a couple of blocks apart, went to the same acting school, and spent time together after school. Affleck often recalls this time:

“If it wasn’t for Matt Damon, I would never have made it to the movies. When we met, I was eight. Matt was ten. We turned out to have many common interests, so we began to spend a lot of time together, one might say, we grew up together. When we got older, we often traveled to New York for various auditions and interviews. We needed a job. We wanted to be in the movies. We were sure that we urgently needed to become adults.

One fateful night, Ben and Matt vowed to each other to become famous actors by all means and never deviate from this path. As we now know, both managed to keep that promise.

When they became adults, almost without hesitation, they decided to move from Massachusetts to California, because the chance of getting a good contract there was much higher. True, at first they did not have a job. Having crossed the threshold of an independent life, they immediately succumbed to its temptations and set off in all serious ways: they rented a house in the very center of Los Angeles with all their savings, every day they had parties with a sea of ​​​​alcohol and drugs. And in the breaks from the “fun” they went to auditions.

Therefore, it is not surprising that for a long time the producers refused to work with them, offering only the most insignificant roles or even participation in extras. Only in 1992 did they finally get lucky when their friends were approved for central roles in the teenage series School Ties. But life didn’t seem to teach them anything, because they spent all their fees on the same parties. And Affleck, apparently under drugs, decided to try his hand at directing and invested a lot of money in shooting his own film “I killed a lesbian wife, hung her on a meat hook, and now I have a contract with Disney for three films.” His work, of course, no one appreciated.

Because of their parties, the young actors were soon left penniless. Only the descent to the very bottom finally prompted them to take up their minds.

Confounded teachers

Fortunately, participation in the “School Ties” brought them not only a solid profit, but also popularity and connections. Thanks to newfound friends, director Kevin Smith became interested in Ben and Matt. He was not a big mover in the film business, but his films were rapidly gaining popularity. Smith worked with the duo on Supermarket Party People and was even able to give Affleck his first big dramatic role. He played the young artist Holden in love in Chasing Amy. The picture was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Finally, the work of the same Kevin Smith was able to bring world fame to Affleck and Damon. This happened thanks to the comedy “Dogma”, in which the duo played the roles of a pair of evil angels who were expelled from paradise. After Dogma, Ben was flooded with job offers in a wide variety of films.

Already in 1998, Affleck was awarded the Oscar. True, not as an actor, but as a screenwriter of the film Good Will Hunting. He had long dreamed of writing scripts, even went to college in the direction of writing, but his teacher told him that he was mediocrity. However, Ben did not give up and went with his stories, among which was the script for Good Will Hunting, to Kevin Smith, who agreed to finance the film adaptation. After winning the Oscars, Affleck’s gloating towards his teachers simply knew no bounds.

In the same 1998, Affleck’s fame was finally consolidated thanks to his first blockbuster – the Michael Bay film Armageddon. The story of the brave drillers who save the Earth was nominated for four Oscars and is still regularly broadcast on television around the world.

Will return as Batman

The actor has big career plans and he is not going to stop there.

It was recently confirmed that Ben will be returning to the DC Cinematic Universe as Batman. This is likely to happen in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which are slated for release next year.

Also, Affleck did not forget his old friends Matt Damon and Kevin Smith. Already this year, the third part of Smith’s personal Clerks franchise will be released on the screens, in which the famous duet will also appear. What role they will play is still unknown.

Affleck’s last film was the thriller Deep Waters. In it, he played the role of Vic, a happy family man who finds out that his wife is not only cheating on him, but that she has killed her lover.

Ben Affleck’s personal life and wedding with Jennifer Lopez

Ben Affleck is one of the main characters in scandalous love stories. The number of his novels is simply incalculable, and the tragedy of some of them hits his heart. Although at the same time he cannot be called a womanizer, he is simply always looking for that very soul mate and is often disappointed.

The first such story happened to him in his youth. Then for the sake of one pretty girl, he moved to Vermont and entered the local university. But his beloved did not appreciate the act and remained cold. Affleck quickly dropped out of school and returned to his family in Massachusetts. Ben still calls that refusal the biggest disappointment in his life.

After the arrival of acting fame, Affleck began dating Gwyneth Paltrow, the most famous beauty of the late 1990s. Many may know her from her role as Piper in the Marvel films. However, Gwyneth secretly developed feelings for Shakespeare in Love co-star Joseph Fiennes. After many scandals with a jealous Affleck, the relationship came to an end.

In 2002, the now famous relationship between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez began. Both of them considered this time one of the happiest in their lives, they were even going to get married. But, unfortunately, they could not stand the overwhelming attention from the press and parted.

Ben’s longest relationship was with Jennifer Garner. They met on the set of Pearl Harbor and soon began dating. They lived together for 10 years, they had 3 babies in their family. According to rumors, the reason for their breakup was Ben’s betrayal and his addiction to alcohol. Garner believed to the last that Affleck would come to his senses and undergo treatment for alcoholism. But this never happened.

Further, in the life of the actor, a whole series of short novels followed, which flared up on the front pages in the press as quickly as they faded away: Lindsay Shookus, Shona Secton, Ana de Armas.

Finally, in 2021, the actor announced that he had resumed his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, and the couple recently got married. They both took into account the mistakes of the past and now their relationship has only become stronger, and they themselves are only happier with each other.