Marriage saved Ben Affleck’s career
BEN Affleck’s professional life has long been inextricably intertwined with his love life. It was true in the early 2000s when his over-exposed, roller-coaster romance with Jennifer Lopez dovetailed with a series of cinematic bombs – and it’s just as true in recent years, with his astonishing Hollywood comeback largely tied to his picture-perfect marriage to the effervescent Jennifer Garner.
What happens now that the celebrity press is sharpening its knives over news that the A-list couple – married nearly 10 years and with three children – are splitting?
It began with a daily drumbeat of ominous stories – the duo making a miserable-looking frozen yoghurt run in Los Angeles, and a moving van appearing in their driveway – although the more decorous People magazine insisted the couple were just renovating.
“How many days until Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck get divorced?” Defamer has asked, noting that, in Califor nia, different alimony laws apply to marriages that last more than 10 years, and that the couple’s anniversary is next week.
Us Weekly noted the occasion with a sombre “Fighting for Their Marriage” cover.
Granted, we have no idea what went on in their relationship, nor do we believe that where there’s smoke there’s fire. Lots of other VIP couples have emerged from a cloud of divorce rumours perfectly intact.
So we’ll focus on a question that still bears asking: What do these stories mean for Affleck and his allimportant public image?
You can mark the pivots of Affleck’s famously up-and-down career by what was going on in his personal life. A charter member of the Kevin Smith indie clique in his early acting days, Affleck rocketed to stardom at 24, thanks in part to his lifelong best friendship with Matt Damon, with whom he wrote and co-starred in Good Will Hunting. Together, they won the 1997 Oscar for best screenplay.
He hooked up with red-hot ingenue Gwyneth Paltrow as she was headlining a series of awardsbuzz movies. With his role in her Shakespeare in Love lending him a bit of class, Affleck made the jump to a leading role in the blockbuster smash hit Armageddon.
Then things took a dive. Around the time of misfires like Reindeer Games and universal let-down Pearl Harbor, Affleck’s off-screen life overshadowed his work. He went into rehab in 2001.
The next year, he started dating pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez. As with Paltrow a couple years earlier, he caught up with J Lo at the absolute top of her game. But she was a tabloid magnet, thanks to a splashy affair with Diddy and a quickie marriage to Cris Judd – and her rapid rebound with Affleck (they were engaged within months of her divorce) became a sideshow spectacle dubbed “Bennifer”.
As Mindy Kaling once described it: “Bennifer was so big it was as though two people had never been in love before and they had discovered it.”
After the couple postponed their wedding because of “excessive media attention” (so many photographers were staked out that they considered hiring three “decoy brides”), Affleck’s career started to tailspin as well. Lopez and Affleck co-starred in Gigli in 2003, widely considered one of the most terrible films of all time, while superhero vehicle Daredevil was a flop.
Bennifer broke up soon after and Affleck stepped out of the spotlight. “All this s*** just kind of blew up,” Affleck later told Details magazine, calling 2003 the worst year of his life. He became a punchline.
The one upside? Affleck became acquainted with co-star Garner during Daredevil, and a year after the movie’s release, they began dating. At the time, she was a rising star from the critically acclaimed TV spy drama Alias and she possessed an ineffable It Girl likeability.
Dating a beloved star could not have come at a better time for Affleck, shaking off public mockery and bombs like Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas. The pair eloped in 2005 and soon after had a baby girl, Violet.
Just as Affleck was reshaping his reputation as a devoted family man, he slowly started to climb his way back to respectability in the industry. He won acclaim for smaller supporting roles in smart films like Hollywoodland and State of Play. Then he took his talents behind the camera with The Town, directing the crime drama set in Boston.
Even as the internet continued to buzz with rumours about indiscretions, Affleck’s newly refined image powered him through. By now, he and Garner had two adorable daughters, and who wanted to knock the golden family? He and Garner cemented a “just like everyone else” image, letting their kids dress in age-appropriate mismatched clothes and play outside, pleasing fans who loved how mundane it all seemed.
Affleck’s career resurgence matched his family bliss as he directed Argo, which dominated the 2013 awards season, winning the Best Picture Oscar and re-establishing him among the Hollywood elite.
His Oscar speech raised some eyebrows with a comment addressed to his wife – “I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases… it is work, but it’s the best kind of work, and there’s no one I’d rather work with.” Mostly he was applauded for acknowledging that marriage isn’t perfect.
Garner appeared in front of Congress to fight against paparazzi taking photos of children. Affleck was frequently recognised for his involvement in his Eastern Congo Initiative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His appearances on Capitol Hill were so frequent that he was asked again and again when he was running for office.
Now, however, everyone’s sifting over Affleck’s Oscar-night words again. Although he scored big with a starring role in Gone Girl last year, the negative stories have started to ramp up. He was kicked out of a Las Vegas casino last year for allegedly counting cards. In the past few months, the tabloids and gossip blogs have been keeping tabs on where they are on each other’s birthdays (apart) and if they’re wearing wedding rings (Affleck wasn’t, that one time, for whatever that’s worth).
After some of the stories, Affleck and Garner appear to have made an effort to be seen in public together, with their kids, of course. But it’s worth noting that up next for Affleck is the controversial Batman v Superman, and superfans are not pleased that Affleck has the Batman role. If history teaches us anything, this could be another valley for Affleck, especially if he does not have the image of a perfect marriage to fall back on. – The Washington Post