The role Ben Affleck that left deeply “embarrassed” of his job
It’s a long way to the top in the movie industry and even the most meteoric rises to fame usually have a far longer back story than you might imagine. Alongside his early career partner Matt Damon, Ben Affleck became an overnight Hollywood icon in 1997 following the success of his feature, Good Will Hunting.
Damon and Affleck co-wrote and starred in the classic Gus Van Sant direction, earning them the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for their efforts. The movie would power the two men into the public eye and its a position the duo have not relinquished ever since.
“Ben has always had an incredible charisma. People are just getting introduced to it through film,” Damon told The Los Angeles Times while reflecting on their friendship in 1999. “It’s hard to think of your best friend as a movie star, but the fact that he is [stems from] the extent to which parts of the real him come through. He is somebody that everybody wants to be around.”
Although their paths have parted and converged several times over the past 25 years, Damon and Affleck have maintained a steady personal and professional kinship. Notably, the pair reunited in 2022 to collaborate on Air, an Affleck direction following the basketball player Michael Jordan and his groundbreaking association with Nike.
Speaking with People in April, Damon discussed the importance of his friendship with Affleck. Damon stated that their bond is “everything to” him and that his life would be “unimaginably harder” without his childhood buddy. “It’s been really helpful to check in with Ben throughout this whole surreal process over the last 25 years,” he added.
Affleck is undoubtedly proud of his career triumphs to date. In a podcast appearance with host Bill Simmons in 2021, Affleck revealed that Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Good Will Hunting were his greatest achievements to date.
However, on the flip side, Affleck has his rare, isolated moments of embarrassment and regret. Many years before his breakthrough with Good Will Hunting, Affleck enjoyed moderate success as a child actor. His first credited acting role came in 1981 when he was cast as Tommy in the independent movie The Dark End of The Street.
It was just one of the first roles that Affleck used to elevate himself into a professional world. Affleck might have seemingly just exploded into the world of movies, but he actually plugged away for years and years, trying to get his name up in lights. But there was one movie that left him particularly ashamed of his profession.
Throughout the 1980s, Affleck’s acting consisted mainly of small, foundational TV roles, one of which he was particularly “embarrassed” by. Speaking in a 2020 interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, the actor recalled how a casting director friend of his mother’s got him one of his early roles on TV.
“She was casting a kids’ science and math adventure, sort of pre-Dora the Explorer show for PBS,” Affleck remembered. “I was seven or eight and ended up getting the part… Periodically, I would leave town and go do this series, The Voyage of the Mimi. And it was cheesy, and I was embarrassed about it. It wasn’t like I was coming back home and being like, ‘You guys gotta see this! I’m so cool!'”
Despite this embarrassing early role, Affleck was grateful for the early experience, revealing that it gave him a “deep love and affection for this art and craft and line of work.” Additionally, these early roles encouraged one of his best pals rather jealous. “It made Matt Damon so incredibly jealous and drove him into a career in cinema,” he said. “So I really take credit for that.”
Watch Ben Affleck in a scene from The Voyage of the Mimi below.
