Interview: Ben Affleck Brings Stunning Story of ‘Argo’ to Life

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HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: To go back a second to casting and who you cast in certain roles, my friend when it was over turned to me and said, “Affleck has the best taste in character actors.” You’ve got Philip Baker Hall and Richard Kind and all of these actors who are in one scene. Can you speak about why you chose those personalities? And Michael Parks comes in for a line or two.

AFFLECK: Yeah, those are the highest compliments you can get. It was a great cast, and we had a great casting director, and I also just have a history of a life spent… As actors, you watch other actors and their performances and you pay attention to it and you go, “Oh, that’s a great little moment.” You appreciate actors more I think, because you’re doing the same job. Also, with someone like Michael Parks, I knew who he was, but then I saw him in “Red State,” Kevin Smith’s movie, and I was like, “This guy is amazing.” I saw Kerry Bishé in that movie as well and cast her, and John Goodman was in it. [Laughs] So basically I’ve cast everyone from Kevin’s movie, so it’s really Kevin’s taste.

And then going to Arkin. I don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t get Arkin. He is so perfect for that Hollywood producer sort of cranky guy, enough bluster to be full of shit, but enough also to be like, “Okay, we are going to do this thing. I know it sounds crazy.” And Goodman, I just couldn’t help but think of all of those Coen Brothers movies he was in where he was funny, but so real, whether it’s “Lebowski” or “Barton Fink” or “Raising Arizona.” He just has this ability to be outrageous and truthful, which is extremely rare. Bryan Cranston obviously is no secret.

Argo
Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

AIN’T IT COOL NEWS: Can you talk a little bit about just meeting Tony for the first time and aside from the story, what did you want to get from him in your initial meetings?

AFFLECK: The first time I met Tony was when I went to D.C., and I drove into town. He wanted to meet me at this bar and I forget what it was called now, but it was an old wood-paneled bar over by Georgetown.

AIN’T IT COOL NEWS: That’s where I’m from. There are a lot of those in that area. That’s where I’m from.

AFFLECK: I know. He was like, “This was an old CIA bar. This is where Aldridge Ames passed all of this material to his handler with the KGB,” and then he started telling me CIA history, and it was incredible. It was great, because I thought, “Okay, this is a real thing. This guy is the real deal.” He starts telling me his story, and I realized “He’s not just spinning a yarn. This is true. This is CIA history. He’s got the Intelligence Star, he’s one of the 50 great CIA agents of all time.”

And I realized because he was so soft spoken and because he was so chill and quiet and introverted, you could tell when he’s telling stories that were really heroic, it occurred to me that there are so many people in the clandestine service who do this work and don’t get any award, who don’t get any approbation. They don’t get anything and yet they make these huge sacrifices. Even if it’s nottaking a bullet, it’s “You’re marriage falls apart” or “You never see your kids.” All kinds of stuff that we take for granted. I thought, to make a movie where this guy is the hero and make it emblematic for everyone that does this and serves our country in this kind of capacity is really inspiring.

Argo Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

AIN’T IT COOL NEWS: It’s weird to the character, of a spy who spends the entire time in the open. He’s exposed the whole time he’s doing this mission. I don’t remember ever seeing anything quite like that before.

AFFLECK: Errol Morris did a documentary on him or featured him in a documentary called “The Little Gray Man,” which is about just blending into the woodwork. It’s like the idea was you should be able to get into an elevator with Tony, stay there, go up to the top, get off, walk out, and somebody would say, “Could you describe the guy that was just in there?” and have no memory of it. So being unobtrusive is part of his spy craft.

WIND: You were about his son’s age when all of this was happening?

AFFLECK: Almost exactly his son’s age. When we filmed the son stuff, it completely changed my perspective from identifying with Tony to realizing, “That’s who I really am, this kid with this room full of action figures and STAR WARS sheets and the posters and stuff.”

WIND: Let’s talk about your directing for a little bit, which I can imagine is very challenging when directing your own acting. Who do you go to, or do you go to anybody when you’re looking at the takes and say, “I’m not sure about this,” or do you just go for it?

AFFLECK: There are a few people I will sometimes check with. Actually Chris, the writer, was really good with that. He’s so critical that I would say, “Was that terrible?” “Yeah, it’s kind of terrible.” so I knew once he said that he thought it was alright it was like, “This is brilliant.” [Laughs] “If Chris thinks it’s mediocre, it’s great.” Mostly what I did was shoot a lot of coverage of myself and do a lot of takes and direct myself later in the editing room when I could have some distance and perspective on it.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Do you have directors you’ve worked with who you would say most influenced your style as a director?

AFFLECK: I’ve taken a lot from a lot of directors. Gus Van Sant was very chill and creates a mellow atmosphere and allows actors to make their own discoveries. Roger Michell cast every part, like every extra, like he casts the lead in the movie, and so he would create this really cool thing where you can talk to anybody in the scene and go anywhere. Terrence Malick allows the unexpected to happen, and there are no rules. Martin Brest, from him I really learned about doing a lot of takes and letting actors get comfortable and choosing little tiny select bits from each take. Kevin Smith taught me that it doesn’t have to be fraught; it can be about working with your friends and can be a relaxed atmosphere and that can be conducive to getting better work. I’ve been lucky. John Madden with “Shakespeare in Love,” he was just faithful to that text, nice and simple, and the movie worked amazingly. He didn’t have to embellish it or adorn it with all of this other stuff. You could just make the movie.

Argo Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Did you have directors who you didn’t work with who have inspired or influenced you? I have to admit, in all three of your films, I see very ’70s influences, Lumet, Friedkin…

AFFLECK: Definitely Sudney Lumet. “The Verdict” was a big movie in the [“The Town”]. Lumet is definitely one of the big influences. The ’70s, like you say with Friedkin, Pakula, all the way to the early ’70s with “The Godfather” obviously and Hal Ashby, Cassavetes. The ’70s to me is the golden age of American movies. There is no end to the great material that comes to mine when you’re looking for inspiration, and so that’s really what I did. There’s a little Costa-Gavras, a little “Battle of Algiers,” “All the President’s Men.” I like to go and find something to influence me before I do movies and really get steeped in it and soak it up. You don’t want to reproduce Lumet—Lumet is Lumet—but there’s definitely flavors of that that I really want in my movies and that I really admire.

AIN’T IT COOL NEWS: But it sounds like what you’re saying is what you’ve learned from all of these people is to—rather than impose their style onto your film—find the style that fits the material.

AFFLECK: Yeah, Gus used to say you’ve got to let the movie talk back to you. You can’t keep trying to make it into the thing that you’re trying to make it. It’s not that, it’s elusive, and then once you allow it to talk to you and you give it the room to get where it wants to go, it really gets better. And for me, just in terms of being an actor, I know that when I show up on a set and I have the most relaxation and the most freedom, I’m the most successful and I try to provide that for the other actors. I have never seen a movie that I loved that didn’t have acting that I loved in it, so I know that that’s got to be successful for the movie to work. So that’s my first order of business, making sure the actors feel that way. When you to look at Lumet’s movies, they look like the actors have that kind of freedom, and there’s that kind of attention to performance.