Matt Damon Once Opened up About How Ben Affleck Dating Jennifer Lopez Was Killing His Career
Matt Damon was very much aware of the career-shift Ben Affleck experienced while he was dating Jennifer Lopez.
But Damon felt Affleck choosing to be with Lopez despite the ensuing controversies proved Affleck truly cared about his partner.
Ben Affleck once shared how his relationship with Jennifer Lopez potentially hurt his career
Affleck has been very candid about how his career took a bad turn in the early 2000s. Apart from starring in a few films that didn’t too well, his relationship with Jennifer Lopez was the center of attention for many tabloids. He theorized being with Lopez at the time, and the attention that came with it, may have played a part in his career set back.
“It was probably bad for my career,” he once told Details (via People).
The Batman V. Superman star shared that his personal life began to impact his professional life thanks to the tabloids.
“What happens in this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work,” he continued. “I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and [the media] mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that.”
Years later, he managed a career resurgence which started in large part with the film Gone Baby Gone. With him directing the film, the project had a lot at stake. Affleck hoped that Gone Baby Gone wouldn’t experience the same fate as his prior movies.
“I feel like [Gone Baby Gone] is a linchpin for my life. My career,” he said. “I have a lot riding on it. I want it to work. Badly. I mean, a s*** movie comes out on 2,800 screens? I’ve been there and it’s embarrassing.”
Matt Damon once opened up about how Ben Affleck being with Jennifer Lopez was killing his career
One of Affleck’s closest friends, Bourne Identity star Matt Damon, took notice of the overwhelming attention Affleck’s relationship received.
Damon made it a point to avoid the attention of tabloids back in the 2000s. He was adamant that once certain publications focused on a particular actor, that would only have negative consequences for the actor’s work. Affleck’s situation with Lopez helped support his theory.
“If you end up in their crosshairs, you’re really f*****. Because there is an absolute relationship between how f***** you are, if you’re on the cover of their magazines, and what happens to you as an actor. I mean, nobody knows that more than Ben,” Damon said in a 2007 interview with GQ.
Damon was against the notion that Affleck and Lopez were somehow encouraging the attention on them. To the actor, Affleck remaining with Lopez was “proof that he stayed in that relationship for the right reasons. Because he knew it was killing his career. He knew it. And people would say, ‘Oh, you’re courting the press!’ Why the f*** would he want to court that kind of press?”
Like Affleck, Damon also felt being in such a high-profile relationship made selling movies more difficult.
“Why would you go see the movie of somebody who you see, ‘Monday, buying a Starbucks. Tuesday, there he is buying a book. Wednesday, yeah, he’s just like me! He’s shopping at the mall. Thursday, he’s…’ On Friday night, are you gonna go see the guy’s movie? Absolutely not. There’s too much familiarity,” he said.
Jennifer Lopez felt bad that Matt Damon was asked about her relationship with Ben Affleck
As many know, Lopez and Affleck have recently rekindled their relationship and have even gotten married not too long ago. Damon has been asked a couple of times about his opinion on Affleck and Lopez’s reunion. But Damon shared that he and Affleck rarely touch on matters that personal.
“I talk to him every day, but we don’t talk about personal stuff, we just talk about the movie. There’s not enough liquor in the world for you to get me to say something about that,” Damon told Today.
Lopez, however, quipped that she took issue with the show’s hosts trying to get that kind of information out of Damon.
“You guys really gave him a hard time. I felt so bad for him. I was like, ‘Oh my God,'” she said in a separate Today interview.
