Ben Affleck Once Shared Why He Had to Stop Making Movies in Boston
Ben Affleck has represented his hometown of Boston in many of his films. But after a while, he felt that it was important to move beyond his home when developing his movies.
Ben Affleck believed that he had to get out of Boston for his movies
Affleck reignited his career by directing two highly acclaimed movies in very familiar territory. Both Gone Baby Gone and The Town took place in Boston. But initially, Affleck was reluctant to do The Town because it hit too close to home.
“I was actually hesitant purely because of that. I had done my love letter to Boston with Gone Baby Gone, and I didn’t want to repeat myself,” Affleck once told Movies.ie. “But the story got to me. I just loved the characters here, the journey they go on. You just feel it in your bones, and it makes the whole process so much easier. And satisfying. I had a lot of fun making this movie.”
However, Affleck decided that The Town needed to be the last film he directed in Boston for a while.
“I knew I had to get out of Boston and stop making movies there, at least for one movie, otherwise no one would ever consider me for a movie that took place south of Providence,” Affleck told Rolling Stone in 2012. “I honestly felt like I would kind of end up being pigeonholed as Boston Crime Guy – not that there aren’t interesting and good movies to be made in the crime genre in Boston, but I wanted to tell different stories.”
This led Affleck to do one of his most successful films in Argo, which was set in Iran. It was a movie that allowed Affleck to travel around several parts of the country and the world. This included Washington D..C., Los Angeles, and Turkey.
“So part of what appealed to me about this is that it was on such a broad palette: it was a period movie,” Affleck said about Argo. “It was in California. It was in D.C. It was in Iran. I got to stretch in a lot of different directions.”
Ben Affleck showed his kids this film to let them know what it was like living in Boston
Affleck asserted that, at one point, his kids’ only experience to Boston was film. Good Will Hunting was based in his and Damon’s hometown, which drew from their own time there. Affleck also felt the movie served as a good reference for educating his family on the area.
“They liked Good Will Hunting,” Affleck once told Boston. “I was like, ‘You see? I’m not the only person who swears this much. There’s a whole city full of people who talk like this. You don’t know this, because you live in Los Angeles where people behave like civilized human beings and don’t end up in fistfights over minor issues and constantly swear. But that is actually how we did things when I grew up.’”
Affleck asserted that showing them the Oscar-winning film helped them learn more about their father as well.
“I think that helped them be like, ‘Oh our dad’s not totally crazy,’” Affleck continued. “There’s a whole world of other crazy people that do these things.”
Ben Affleck described his newfound fame as a double-edged word in Boston
In a resurfaced interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck touched on the kind of reception that he received when visiting Boston. Affleck’s Town co-star Jon Hamm was on record saying that he was treated like the mayor while in the area.
“He’s probably exaggerating,” Affleck said about Hamm’s comments. “People probably know who I am in Boston just because of Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone. It’s a double-edged sword: Being the local boy you definitely get some support and you also…there’s tougher scrutiny.”
