Ben Affleck started directing because of Gigli
The Tender Bar actor explained in a new interview how his notorious 2003 flop "really made me question things"
Aux News Gigli
Ben Affleck is sharing some reflections on his iconic box office flop, Gigli, and how it led him to ultimately start directing films. The actor graces the cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly and was subjected to a hard-hitting interview with his best friend Matt Damon.
Affleck explained that he signed on to Gigli, which cost an estimated $75 million and made $7 million, because he loved and respected director Martin Brest’s previous work. “There was wonderful stuff in there,” he said of the movie, which costarred his then- and now-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
“There are things where my daughter will be like, ‘This is ableist and disgusting,’ and okay. The way we see stuff has changed a little bit, or a lot in some cases. And there are things that seemed they could work at the time and don’t in retrospect,” he said. Though Affleck and Damon touch on the film’s treatment of the developmentally disabled character played by Justin Bartha, they did not address the fact that Gigli was the second movie in his career in which a lesbian fell in love with him. (The first being Chasing Amy.)
But Affleck said the biggest lesson of Gigli was realizing how real life—namely his blockbuster relationship with J. Lo—would affect how people saw what happened on screen. “But for being a movie that’s such a famous bomb and a disaster, very few people actually saw the movie,” he said, noting that he’d been in “five movies—at least!” that lost more money than Gigli. Affleck also said the studio demanded reshoots to make the movie seem more like a romantic comedy because of interest in the couples’ relationship, which didn’t help.
Affleck explained the biggest benefit of doing the film was watching Brest work. “Interestingly, I learned more about directing on that movie than anything else because Marty is a brilliant director, really gifted,” he said.
He explained, “I thought my job was to be a cipher. I can see now how people looked at me and thought of this person as some callow frat guy who’s cavalier, or has too much. It engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me. There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt.”
“But if the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, ‘I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,’ which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life,” Affleck said. “So in those ways, it’s a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”
Affleck starred in 2021’s The Last Duel, which was also a box office flop, despite warm critical reception. He was just nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in The Tender Bar, directed by George Clooney.
42 Comments
I needed another reason to hate this movie (that I never actually saw, but I understand we’re all supposed to hate it)!?
Gobble gobble.
still working with that European See ‘N Say?
Martin Brest directed Fire Walk With Me?
Ha HA…”Brest”!
you’ll only hate it more if you actually see it. stay golden!
You didn’t like Argo?
didn’t see that either
… and I believe Martin Brest (of Wargames fame) stopped directing because of Gigli. I don’t think he had any other credits since this film last time I looked.For better or worse, the balance is maintained.
A strange industry. The only winning move is not to direct.
How about a nice…improv exercise?
Yes, and…
I’ll still go to bat for Meet Joe Black any day.
It’s waaaaaaaaay too slow.
Not only that, he completely disappeared. Like no one is really sure where he is. At least not publicly. He’s become the Salinger of film directors. Terrence Malick is literally easier to find than Brest is nowadays.
Have they looked here?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brest,_France
Or even here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Brest#:~:text=Brest%20has%20not%20directed%20a,fellow%20filmmaker%20Paul%20Thomas%20Anderson.Brest has not directed a film since, and a 2014 article in Playboy observed that he appeared to leave public life entirely afterward, though in 2021, he appeared as a featured guest at a screening of Beverly Hills Cop and Midnight Run in Los Angeles, where he was interviewed by fellow filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.
I’d love to pull that kind of move, but it doesn’t have the same mystique when you work in admin. “They say he was a natural: data entry, filing, laminating and hole punching. He could do it all. Then one day it happened: he sent an important mailout to all the company’s stakeholders written entirely in Comic Sans. He gave his notice that afternoon and was never seen in the industry again.”
WarGames was John Badham. Martin Brest’s biggest claim to fame was Midnight Run.
Beverly Hills Cop begs to differ.
Yeah. Maybe the confusion was that they both disappeared after a poorly received movie – Brest for Gigli (2003), Badham for Incognito (1997). Although Badham did do some TV work in the 2000s and is now I think retired due to age.
I wondered why I thought Martin Brest directed Wargames because I was quite sure I saw it somewhere. I looked it up and turns out he was fired from directing it after 12 days of shooting, so I’d like to change my remark to “of Wargames infamy” please.
A four consecutive directing run of: Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman, and Meet Joe Black (say what you will, but it made roughly $150m). That’s a massively successful run for a director.
…And then Gigli happened and, poof, he’s gone. Hollywood can be so confusing and cruel.
Affleck is a workman director. He’s not flashy, but he knows how to make a solid, well-paced, interesting movie.
He’s this generation’s Ron Howard.
Narrator: He was NOT this generation’s Ron Howard.
Him?
“PeterBread had gone too far, and had best watch their mouth.”
That’s not a bad comparison.
For the record I really liked The Town and Gone Baby Gone. He hasn’t directed as many films as I originally thought he had, so he’s about 50/50 at the moment.
“Started” my ass. Who can forget Affleck’s directing work a whole ten years before, the immortal I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney?
Fingered your ass?
Also a third Affleck-involved movie centering around a lesbian being in a relationship with a straight man, as it were
Glad to see both Ben Affleck and Matt Damon learning lessons from their daughters. Those two f****ts never cease to grow. #Blessed.
Can Damon’s daughter teach him the lesson “Don’t shill for cryptocurrency”?
“There are things where my daughter will be like, ‘This is ableist and
disgusting,’ and okay. The way we see stuff has changed a little bit, or
a lot in some cases.Kinda like when Matt Damon’s daughter told him not to call gay people the f-word.
Huh. It wasn’t Pearl Harbor that convinced him that anyone could direct?
He’ll always be a hot mess.
“I realised the only way to stop a film like ‘Gigli’ from ever happening again was to become the director for every film made and ensure none of them was ‘Gigli’. I haven’t reached that goal yet, but I’ll never stop trying.”
* Joey Lauren Adams wasn’t a lesbian in Chasing Amy; she was expressly bi.
Nevermind, no one cares.
No, he started directing because of his ego. Blegh.
If he would’ve attempted including some of the concepts from the psychedelic Jack Kirby concept art hijinks for the movie project in Argo, I’d have been more lenient.