Affleck also had praise for Lopez, from whom he split in 2024. “I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what she can do,” he said when asked why the Hustlers star has failed to receive awards recognition. “What I’ve found with awards is that sometimes the degree of commercial success for things doesn’t always correlate to my taste,” he added. “It’s a part of this weird, subjective business that people bring a lot of their own stuff to.”
But though he’ll never catch up with either Jennifer when it comes to an online following, Affleck is well aware that he rivals them when it comes to being a meme. The actor, who became the face of the 2010’s iconic Sad Man, is so well-known for his resting misery face that Lopez had to defend him while walking the Golden Globes red carpet, saying “You don’t need to worry about Ben, let me just tell you. He is good. He is happy.”
According to Affleck, that virality isn’t all bad. “You have to have a sense of humor and be in on the joke with people,” he said, “Like how I became a meme for ‘the beleaguered man,’ as my daughter calls it.”
But it’s unlikely he’ll start posting his own content any time soon. “I think Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep and Viola Davis and Denzel Washington are brilliant actors,” he said. “It doesn’t help me appreciate their movies to see what they had for lunch. I realize I sound like an old, out-of-touch person, but I believe that as an actor you have to maintain an illusion.” An illusion who has to smoke through his COVID mask and juggle packages and doughnut shop coffee, but an illusion nonetheless.