Ben Affleck Blaming Himself For Gigli Is Self-Deprecation At Its Finest

Ben Affleck is taking time off from being sad to promote his latest acting, screenwriting, and directing endeavor, Live by Night. In interviews, he's touched on his recent highs (Argo) and his recent lows (Batman v Superman). On December 12, he participated in a TimesTalk with New York Times journalist Chip McGrath, and with little prompting, the actor opened up about a time of equal highs and lows: the Bennifer days. Ah, yes those early-2000s years full of Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on red carpets, in music videos, and, of course, Gigli. It's still a very sore subject. Affleck blames himself for the laughing stock and "big fucking deal" that the movie ultimately became. Affleck spoke candidly about the public's brutal reaction to the flop. “This might sound like a funny thing to say because he directed the movie Gigli and everyone makes fun of the movie — I get it — but actually Marty Brest may be the best director I ever worked with," Affleck said. "In a way, I kind of ruined it for him. Because it would have been a bad movie, but a bad movie and no one would have cared about it, you know what I mean?" The actor continued, obviously needing to get this Gigli guilt off his chest (again). "Angelina Jolie had a bad movie that came out that year [Beyond Borders] and nobody cared, but because I was dating Jennifer Lopez, that made it a big fucking deal. You know? And not only was it a bad movie, but they’re dating each other in the bad movie! So it got unfairly maligned. I remember there was a reporter doing a stand-up with his camera out in front of a theater that Friday morning [saying] ‘Here I am outside of Gigli. As you can see no one in line for the movie tonight.’ It’s like, What is this hurricane coverage? But Marty is a tremendously gifted filmmaker." On this note, I wonder how Lopez feels about it all now? Listen to Affleck talk about it in the interview below, starting at the 36-minute mark.