How aliens and vampires helped Ben Affleck win an Oscar: “Something I didn’t expect”
Inspiration can hit us from the most sudden and unexpected of places, seemingly coming from nowhere but most likely coming from the back catalogue of movie moments that collect dust in the back of your head.
It comes as no surprise that most filmmakers are also avid cinephiles, with countless cinematic memories that have become ingrained in their subconscious and naturally infuse their cinematic palette. It could be Quentin Tarantino and his sly ability to steal direct scenes from all of his favourite films, or the many horror directors who respectfully pay homage to The Shining and all of its towering achievements.
However, for Ben Affleck, inspiration did not come from one specific place, with the director discussing the many unexpected film scenes that wormed their way into his mind, despite coming from a genre he tends to avoid.
After an unprecedented rise to success, rising to fame after co-writing the screenplay for Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon and becoming the youngest ever to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, the actor later expanded his career and began operating behind the camera instead. Despite primarily being known for his work on screen, he was able to blend his dramatic abilities with his voice as a director, creating gritty and naturalistic dramas that often reflect real-life stories.
From Air, Gone Baby Gone or his Oscar-winning film Argo, with the announcement famously prompting Quentin Tarantino to spit out his drink, whether or not his films are your cup of tea, Affleck has proven himself to have the exact kind of mind that makes a true director tick. But this is also evident from his influences and the niche stories that have stayed with him over the years, describing the pivotal spooky moments that seeped into his own work.
When discussing this, Affleck said, “There was a lot of them that I had seen, but I watched them again. I liked The Thing, for my hair. I liked John Cassavete’s Killing of a Chinese Bookie, for the seedy LA. I loved the look, the feel, the way they used zooms, and it felt raw but choreographed, which I didn’t see coming. There’s a movie called Let Me In, which I watched. A guy named Matt Reeves did it, and it’s a remake.
“I thought it was really well directed. I watched it with my DP, and we were looking at the stuff they did with focus and keeping things in the foreground and softer in the background. That was something I didn’t expect to influence me, but did”.
The vampire genre has famously never garnered much respect from the movie-going public as a whole, with many viewing it as a frivolous adolescent genre that isn’t for high-brow cinema lovers. However, there have been many genius iterations to the genre over the years, with Matt Reeves being a prime example of how you can merge traditional stories with arthouse filmmaking, something that he only expanded through his version of Batman. The soft focus shot is a staple within Reeves’ filmography, and a unique trick that stayed with Affleck forever.
