Ben Affleck relishes chance to gamble on ‘Live by Night’
When Ben Affleck’s “Argo” won best picture four years ago, it was an unquestionable high point in a career that has seesawed with ups and downs. As he, clutching the Oscar, spoke emotionally of “getting back up” after being knocked down, Affleck seemed to be leaving the turbulence behind.
But the roller coaster soon enough started rolling again. Though many expected him to continue on the path of prestige filmmaker, he, with just a touch of fanfare, took on the high-pressure role of Batman, a bid to secure his place on the A-list and wow his 4-year-old son. And after splitting with his wife, Jennifer Garner, Affleck again found himself a tabloid regular.
“This business tends to exaggerate highs and lows,” Affleck said during a recent interview. “I’ve had legitimate lows, movies I didn’t like, and I’m very proud of the movies I directed and so on. But you become a cast member in a soap opera that you’re not writing. You get the script every day, and you find out what your role is that day.”
Now, Affleck is hoping to flip the script again. He’s releasing his directorial follow-up to “Argo,” an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s crime novel “Live by Night.” The film, which opens Friday, is the story of a Prohibition-era gangster (Affleck) who decamps from Boston to Tampa’s Ybor City to create a rum-running empire.
“When I had the success of ‘Argo,’ I kind of got to leverage that,” said Affleck, who was sent the book by Leonardo Di Caprio. “It was sort of pick what you want to do, and this is what I wanted to do.”
It’s easily Affleck’s most ambitious film yet, one he grants he couldn’t have tackled earlier. It has lavish period sets and costumes, a lengthy car chase and an epic sweep compelled by a clash of American ideals that resonates particularly postelection. He just hopes his side job in Warner Bros.’ DC Comics universe doesn’t overshadow it.
Lehane, the celebrated crime noir novelist, said Affleck is orderly, “nomuss, no-fuss” in talking over the screenplays of “Gone Girl” and “Live by Night.”
The reviews for “Live by Night” haven’t been great , and it won’t reach the Oscar heights of “Argo.” But after the film’s first, more traditional crime-thriller chapter, it becomes a timely collision between diverging visions of America: multiculturalism squares off with the KKK and religious zealotry.
“Some of those conflicts, it turns out, are still really relevant today,” Affleck said. “In fact, I had no idea a story about immigrants and the Klu Klux Klan and morality would feel so current today.”
Whether or not “Live by Night” succeeds, Affleck is at peace with the undulations of his Hollywood career.
“I do look at the careers of other directors, guys like John Huston, and see how they had big hits and big misses and lived big lives. That’s OK with me as a model,” Affleck said. “There’s something uniquely American about that.”