Proving once and for all that you can bounce back from Gigli as long as you can write, act, and direct, Ben Affleck has been named Entertainment Weekly‘s Entertainer of the Year for his work on the movie Argo, which currently stands a very good chance of winning more than a few Oscars.
Fifteen years after he bounded onto the Hollywood scene in 1997′s Good Will Hunting, the 40-year-old Affleck is now older and wiser — and may very well be headed back to the Oscar stage for his political thriller about the real-life covert CIA mission that freed six diplomats from Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis. “I had very low expectations for Argo‘s performance,” says the leading man-turned-director. “I just hoped that over time people would find the movie. Also, being at a place in my life and my career where I know what I’m trying to do, it’s different than being 26. When you’re younger and have the early success that I had — it sounds like the worst Hallmark cliche — but I didn’t have anyone to share it with. I don’t mean I wanted someone to sit by the fire with. But when you have a family and children, you kind of see yourself reflected in them. I want to make the kinds of movies that my kids are proud of. I have higher standards, in a way, for them.”
About Jeremy Feist
