I can’t believe this is happening! CB is letting me write about her Batfleck boyfriend. To be fair, I think she’s more into Matt Damon these days (who isn’t?). Ben Affleck and David Fincher did a joint conversation/interview with Details Magazine to promote Gone Girl. The conversation is… douche-tastic. You can read the full piece here. He talks about counting cards (as in, he confirms he counts cards) and how he was boozing it up heavily to play Nick in Gone Girl. Because he’s so Method. I’m assuming he was so Method playing Nick, he also had an affair with Emily Ratajkowski? Some assorted quotes from the piece:
Affleck got drunk a lot to play Nick: “When you look at a movie and think, Oh, that’s the real guy, that’s probably a good thing. You know what I mean? Like, in the book, for example, it said that he was puffy and hungover. And I dedicated myself to that, and I think it’s quite convincing.
Counting cards: “That is a true story. I mean, that took place. I took some time to learn the game and became a decent blackjack player. And once I became decent, the casinos asked me not to play blackjack. I mean, the fact that being good at the game is against the rules at the casinos should tell you something about casinos… They don’t even want you to have a sporting chance, really. There’s a lot of hospitality, backslapping, when they think you’re gonna come in and dump money, and if they think you might leave with some money, it’s like, ‘You know what? Why don’t you try craps or roulette?’”
Why blackjack? “I had always liked blackjack. I don’t play any other games of chance. I don’t bet on football games, and I don’t gamble at all, really, outside of that. But I knew with blackjack that there’s a way you can improve your odds. And so I started trying to learn. And then I just got to a point in my life where I’m like, “If I’m going to do something, I’m going to try and do it really well.” It was sort of presented like I did something illegal. You know what I mean? I got good. I’m sort of obsessive. I tend to get myopic and get into one thing. And really get into it. And then get bored and switch to something else.”
He’s obsessive but not compulsive: “Because I get to correct the impression that there’s something wrong with it or that it demonstrates some, like, compulsive activity. Usually, when you’re a compulsive gambler, the casinos don’t ask you to leave because you’re beating them.”
On the reports that Jennifer Garner hates his gambling: “See, that’s tabloid s–t. That’s all bulls–t. They completely lie. I mean, I can show you 10 articles of Star and OK!—those magazines feel totally comfortable absolutely fictionalizing every single element of the story. And there’s nothing you can do about that. My only hope is that people with any common sense recognize that those stories are false. And, I don’t know, there’re worse stories . . .
Relating to soap operas: “I could definitely relate to the way—the need of media outlets to tell brief, digestible, readily identifiable stories that include two-dimensional archetype characters— And that you kind of get cast in a soap opera that you have no desire to be in.”
I don’t really know what to say about the whole conversation of Affleck’s gambling. This is a guy who has had gambling problems in the past (he’s had alcohol problems in the past too). I appreciate that he’s self-aware enough to recognize his obsessive behavior and I guess it’s good that he’s only obsessed with blackjack (except I know he’s also a huge high-stakes poker player too). But I think he’s kidding himself if his thought process is “this is just a minor obsession, I don’t have compulsive behavior about gambling.” It feels like he’s sliding back into some really bad habits, but he’s still in the phase where he’s trying to explain it all away.
Photos courtesy of Mark Seliger/Details.
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