Name: Ben Affleck on Dealing with Paparazzi, Getting Memed, and the Downsides of Hollywood
Uploaded: 2025-04-25T18:27:43.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Affleck on Dealing with Paparazzi, Getting Memed, and the Downsides of Hollywood' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Affleck on Dealing with Paparazzi, Getting Memed, and the Downsides of Hollywood' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-25. Transcript available.

it's hard to know if you it would seem like you seem like a guy who likes being
in hollywood or
doesn't like being in hollywood i guess there's things i really like about it
and things i really
don't like yeah right and i wish they didn't have to be together but they are
right like it's kind
of life it's there's you got to take the good with the bad i don't really like
to like do big
social events or go out much i'm kind of sure i don't really want to be on care
certainly when i'm
like in my regular life and i'm walking around in my you know whatever
underwear and t-shirts
but i don't want people looking at me i like my family and my kids and my life
i i wish that were
more private i don't i don't know how many people really want to be sort of
scrutinized in that way
but i i really like making movies and i like telling those stories and so look
the truth is i always knew
that was kind of a part of it and so you know i deal with it i don't there's
things i i don't love about
this business a lot of them you know it can make you kind of crazy you know it
can record and there's
stuff that's just no fun for me like you know events and shows and stuff like
that i don't
some people really know how to have a good time i wish i i did i wish i was out
there like great
we're gonna hit it and i'm gonna you know what i mean like as if i had that
attitude i'd probably
be happier about it yeah you know what i mean yeah dude i'm always trapped
inside of myself there's
always like a lot of this like some people were like you don't like being in a
crowd i'm like i have
a crowd inside of me right now there's a crowd in my head that's busy enough 30
people in here and
we're out of hors d'oeuvres so i i got enough problems on the interior right
now um so i can
talk dude i can totally uh i can totally relate to that and every time there is
a an uh and then we'll
get off this i want to talk i know you i want to talk to you about directing
and acting but um because
yeah i was just i was like this bit is so because they always get pictures of
you where you seem like
you're like the the dwarf that like is kind of like the backup dwarf you know
like you're on the side
you're smokey you're like what is that guy i didn't i don't know that character
but it's like you're
like what is he pissed yeah he's understudy he's the understudy dwarf okay and
not dwarf like you're
a regular headed guy but it's like but i shouldn't have said dwarf i shouldn't
say anything but it was
like um i don't know they all and it's like they only put this chronology out
of you and that makes
you seem like you're kind of bummed well here's the thing um if the only time
like
when somebody's taking a picture of me yeah i'm bummed because usually i'm with
my kids i'm
trying to go somewhere and then there's four guys we're like and i'm like hey
man every time can you
give me some time i'm trying to be with my kids i'm do you mind can you you
know what i mean so the
look on your face is kind of like and then they go away not taking the picture
you go inside and
you're having a good time but it's this selective experience of like take a
picture of somebody every
time they're feeling irritated they're gonna look irritated especially if you're
the one irritating
them yeah it's like i'll come piss you off and then take your picture and then
put and then be like
look i'm pissed off exactly right that's exactly what that's exactly what that
whole system is really
right but and it's like useful because that's why like you know i'm sure you've
seen on all the stuff
like the you know it's kind of the idea is like follow somebody around antagonize
them and then
hopefully they'll have like a nervous breakdown and go crazy on you and then
your video be worth more
money you know yeah it's it's such a it's that whole thing gets really black
mirrorish man you
know it really gets kind of like um like i can remember a long time ago you
know years and years
ago like i really had a lot of empathy for britney spears because i remember
that it seemed like
it's not somebody that i i knew or hung out with but i just like everybody else
you see all this
that comes through and i but having had my own experiences myself i knew like
these are people are following her around in a time where she may or may not
have been having
difficulty i don't know because i don't know her but i do know that the the
cycle of having people
harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you it kind of seemed
like that itself was
kind of whipping up the whole thing into a tizzy so it's it's like they're not
helping well yeah and
they're kind of poking a stick at it and going look look look at it look and it's
that's where it felt
kind of like that's the first time i thought this is kind of a a weird kind of
um unintentional i
think culturally but kind of collective cruelty where what's taken out of the
image that you see
are the people around right you know waving the stick at the tiger or poking on
it or whatever
um and all you see is the the growling animal whatever it is um but like that a
part of that is
because somebody's coming around and you know hitting on it or whatever to make
it get active
and that's where you think okay well this isn't really news it's not even real
it's not what would
be happening if this effect wasn't taking place yeah and and that's where i
thought okay you know
the sort of wise thing to do is to just sort of like maintain one's perspective
and try to remove
yourself a little bit it doesn't which is what i would like to do i think there's
this sense that like
that like if you see someone's picture all the time they must want you to be
seeing right right
which is not the case at all for me i'm self-conscious i don't really want you
to be
seeing that i don't see any reason for it as an actor it's no good for you
because i don't really
want people if they watch a movie to be like that's not him because i saw him
yesterday eating lunch and
i know he's who he really is it gets in the way of you being able to create
like the illusion it's really
hard work to create the illusion that this person like the character in the
account two for example
is a real person in a real circumstance in order to get the audience to care
about it to laugh to
find it exciting and empathize with the character they have to suspend disbelief
that's harder wow if
you're constantly being shown something else so i think it it gets in the way
it makes it harder to
to be an actor and it's also just it's also not good for you people start to
resent you if they see
you too much no matter whether or not you're trying to be single no i i don't
want to do this
and nonetheless like i remember 20 years ago going through an experience was
like it feels to the
world like i'm trying to shove myself in their face and nobody likes that right
nobody wants to be the
like you the the camera hog the guy who's trying to yeah get a bunch of new ben
affleck shoes or
whatever and i'm like man you just leave me alone and i'd be i would be much
happier so in a way it also
can damage your career although i think it's i don't pretend to understand the
nuances and the
of social media and how to manage that as celebrities so i don't do it some
people do it
really well but and i think there is a difference now because like it's like if
you have 100 million
followers that's actually valuable and meaningful in a different way i still i'm
kind of old school i
guess in a way of see medium school i think i'm middle school yes exactly i am
a seventh grader
but yeah it is interesting and it is kind of a sickness i think a lot of people
see that stuff
as a sickness these days um but i do think it's fascinating about the
suspension of disbelief
and that that was something that used to be amazing about celebrities is like
you never got to see them
right and so you only got to see them and actors and you only get to see them
on screen and in this way
and so you really envision them that way i mean you would almost be shocked if
you saw a celebrity
in person or an actor in person uh who didn't like like indiana jones if he
didn't have his head i was
just gonna say that is that when i was a kid i kind of thought harrison ford
was that guy you know
what i mean like that's harrison ford i think he's probably the biggest you
know movie star of my
childhood and whether it was like you know indian jones or star wars like he
was the guy and i kind
of thought he was that guy and so it's a little weird to see that guy just like
you know in his
sneakers and his kind of raincoat walking around bretwood it's sort of like of
course it's disappointing
or or it's disillusioning or something because you you have this thing in your
mind that's people
went to a you know steven spielberg and george lucas went to a whole you know
use all their
talent went to a bunch of work to make this dude look like indiana jones and
han solo and i i think
what i've seen now is like i actually don't even want to see like the actors
that i really like i
don't want to go on your social because i don't want to know what you had for
lunch because it just
makes it harder for me to get into like what you know what you're doing um i
love that and that's i
think that is a real directorial way to think i think i mean i can see that in
your brain i mean
i'm just a judge i'm just a guy judging you they just met in a room somewhere
but um but i never
thought about that that that's how it is that yeah you don't want you want them
kind of you want to
hollywood has almost bitten its own tail in that way because there's this
underlying like valueless
current really that's kind of like a very cheap currency it's hollywood it's it's
hollywood sort of
adjacent adjacent this side of media that's what culture that that profits from
and circles and
there's a symbiotic relationship between hollywood and obviously like here i am
promoting my movie and
running around and now i don't want to go on like a tabloid and do that or
whatever it is but that
that becomes part of that culture too and and then you have like any interview
show or all these and
you're right in a sense it is hollywood because if you do a movie at universal
you know you'll see that
person's doing all nbc comcast owned you know talk shows and appearances right
like it's not a coincidence
because when they do their presentation in the boardroom for comcast to their
shareholders they
go look we make these movies we spend a lot of money and then we get the stars
and we plug them into
all of our other shows that we also own and there's a lot of synergy so on and
so forth the the idea
though is like okay there's that's a kind of a tax that you end up sort of
paying on your sort of
life and the one and on this thing that you're trying to build which is
something that connects
with people and moves them and that they want to go out to a movie theater and
pay good money to see
and it makes it a little bit harder than to have to kind of go around and do
all that other stuff
and be like okay well that's not who i really am and that's and and to try to
sort of be interesting
and relevant in some other way that isn't really what you kind of even wanted
to do and so so you're
right it's sort of part hollywood and also kind of hollywood adjacent it is
eating it's it does eat
its tail in a way because it's because the acting in the creation it's like a
watch looking at the
beauty of a lake right it's like this is picturesque and this is like how they
meant the waves to look
and there's a current here and there's an inflow and outflow and something
landed in the water over
here and left a ripple and something else is this is the b story and there's a
ripple but then it's
this under it's this all this stuff under it and it's almost starting to like
kind of drain its own
lake in a way good metaphor yeah like the jesus the movie has the kind of lake
and the underneath of
what's both what goes into it what happens behind the scenes and also what's
and it's all the same thing
and it does kind of like it's interesting like yeah is it if you overtax it it
lowers the lake
and all of a sudden it doesn't look like a beautiful lake it starts to look
like like the the low
country marsh and it pulls down you start to see all the black mud around the
edges and the muck and
and that's um yeah i don't know how to kind of balance that but as a as a
director you know you're
right like i would say that's the way the principal way i've always kind of
looked at this stuff so
it used to be that you you had an actor and you had people knew less about them
and now a part of
even casting for me is what do people think or of and expect this person to do
and or be
and how can i both i have to rely on that and use that but i also have the
opportunity to kind of
subvert that in a way and and so you have to be mindful not just of the story
you're telling
but what does the audience bring into the theater with them or or uh when they
turn on television you
know and expect that's dude that's yeah i think that's advanced thinking to be
honest with you i
really do it's just uh learned by lived experience mostly you know find out
like i even often make
mistakes you know like if i sometimes i found if i sort of uh i did a movie
where i had like a very
blonde wig that was like a medieval were you rick flair or something i wish i
was rick flair that
would be spectacular i'd love to play it was actually a good movie i really
liked it was called the last
the point and it's great director ridley scott and he had this idea for it oh
yeah really scott and
and yeah there's the thing there you see and and i liked the if that if no one
i think had ever
seen me or whatever i thought that was really yeah interesting the problem is
that people i think
what it did to people first of all created noise around you know look at this
hair is this different
and we know it's a way and so now you look at it and you go but i know he doesn't
look like that
and so it causes you to kind of think it's false that's an example of kind of
probably not being able to go that far away from myself and still have people
go okay i can sit
aside what i know and just watch this story and and like it and believe in it
dude that's fast
that's insider baseball man no i could it makes total sense it makes total
sense that that that
would start to affect how we see things
it makes total sense it makes total sense it makes total sense it makes total
sense it makes total sense

Ben Affleck on Dealing with Paparazzi, Getting Memed, and the Downsides of Hollywood

it's hard to know if you it would seem like you seem like a guy who likes being
in hollywood or
doesn't like being in hollywood i guess there's things i really like about it
and things i really
don't like yeah right and i wish they didn't have to be together but they are
right like it's kind
of life it's there's you got to take the good with the bad i don't really like
to like do big
social events or go out much i'm kind of sure i don't really want to be on care
certainly when i'm
like in my regular life and i'm walking around in my you know whatever
underwear and t-shirts
but i don't want people looking at me i like my family and my kids and my life
i i wish that were
more private i don't i don't know how many people really want to be sort of
scrutinized in that way
but i i really like making movies and i like telling those stories and so look
the truth is i always knew
that was kind of a part of it and so you know i deal with it i don't there's
things i i don't love about
this business a lot of them you know it can make you kind of crazy you know it
can record and there's
stuff that's just no fun for me like you know events and shows and stuff like
that i don't
some people really know how to have a good time i wish i i did i wish i was out
there like great
we're gonna hit it and i'm gonna you know what i mean like as if i had that
attitude i'd probably
be happier about it yeah you know what i mean yeah dude i'm always trapped
inside of myself there's
always like a lot of this like some people were like you don't like being in a
crowd i'm like i have
a crowd inside of me right now there's a crowd in my head that's busy enough 30
people in here and
we're out of hors d'oeuvres so i i got enough problems on the interior right
now um so i can
talk dude i can totally uh i can totally relate to that and every time there is
a an uh and then we'll
get off this i want to talk i know you i want to talk to you about directing
and acting but um because
yeah i was just i was like this bit is so because they always get pictures of
you where you seem like
you're like the the dwarf that like is kind of like the backup dwarf you know
like you're on the side
you're smokey you're like what is that guy i didn't i don't know that character
but it's like you're
like what is he pissed yeah he's understudy he's the understudy dwarf okay and
not dwarf like you're
a regular headed guy but it's like but i shouldn't have said dwarf i shouldn't
say anything but it was
like um i don't know they all and it's like they only put this chronology out
of you and that makes
you seem like you're kind of bummed well here's the thing um if the only time
like
when somebody's taking a picture of me yeah i'm bummed because usually i'm with
my kids i'm
trying to go somewhere and then there's four guys we're like and i'm like hey
man every time can you
give me some time i'm trying to be with my kids i'm do you mind can you you
know what i mean so the
look on your face is kind of like and then they go away not taking the picture
you go inside and
you're having a good time but it's this selective experience of like take a
picture of somebody every
time they're feeling irritated they're gonna look irritated especially if you're
the one irritating
them yeah it's like i'll come piss you off and then take your picture and then
put and then be like
look i'm pissed off exactly right that's exactly what that's exactly what that
whole system is really
right but and it's like useful because that's why like you know i'm sure you've
seen on all the stuff
like the you know it's kind of the idea is like follow somebody around antagonize
them and then
hopefully they'll have like a nervous breakdown and go crazy on you and then
your video be worth more
money you know yeah it's it's such a it's that whole thing gets really black
mirrorish man you
know it really gets kind of like um like i can remember a long time ago you
know years and years
ago like i really had a lot of empathy for britney spears because i remember
that it seemed like
it's not somebody that i i knew or hung out with but i just like everybody else
you see all this
that comes through and i but having had my own experiences myself i knew like
these are people are following her around in a time where she may or may not
have been having
difficulty i don't know because i don't know her but i do know that the the
cycle of having people
harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you it kind of seemed
like that itself was
kind of whipping up the whole thing into a tizzy so it's it's like they're not
helping well yeah and
they're kind of poking a stick at it and going look look look at it look and it's
that's where it felt
kind of like that's the first time i thought this is kind of a a weird kind of
um unintentional i
think culturally but kind of collective cruelty where what's taken out of the
image that you see
are the people around right you know waving the stick at the tiger or poking on
it or whatever
um and all you see is the the growling animal whatever it is um but like that a
part of that is
because somebody's coming around and you know hitting on it or whatever to make
it get active
and that's where you think okay well this isn't really news it's not even real
it's not what would
be happening if this effect wasn't taking place yeah and and that's where i
thought okay you know
the sort of wise thing to do is to just sort of like maintain one's perspective
and try to remove
yourself a little bit it doesn't which is what i would like to do i think there's
this sense that like
that like if you see someone's picture all the time they must want you to be
seeing right right
which is not the case at all for me i'm self-conscious i don't really want you
to be
seeing that i don't see any reason for it as an actor it's no good for you
because i don't really
want people if they watch a movie to be like that's not him because i saw him
yesterday eating lunch and
i know he's who he really is it gets in the way of you being able to create
like the illusion it's really
hard work to create the illusion that this person like the character in the
account two for example
is a real person in a real circumstance in order to get the audience to care
about it to laugh to
find it exciting and empathize with the character they have to suspend disbelief
that's harder wow if
you're constantly being shown something else so i think it it gets in the way
it makes it harder to
to be an actor and it's also just it's also not good for you people start to
resent you if they see
you too much no matter whether or not you're trying to be single no i i don't
want to do this
and nonetheless like i remember 20 years ago going through an experience was
like it feels to the
world like i'm trying to shove myself in their face and nobody likes that right
nobody wants to be the
like you the the camera hog the guy who's trying to yeah get a bunch of new ben
affleck shoes or
whatever and i'm like man you just leave me alone and i'd be i would be much
happier so in a way it also
can damage your career although i think it's i don't pretend to understand the
nuances and the
of social media and how to manage that as celebrities so i don't do it some
people do it
really well but and i think there is a difference now because like it's like if
you have 100 million
followers that's actually valuable and meaningful in a different way i still i'm
kind of old school i
guess in a way of see medium school i think i'm middle school yes exactly i am
a seventh grader
but yeah it is interesting and it is kind of a sickness i think a lot of people
see that stuff
as a sickness these days um but i do think it's fascinating about the
suspension of disbelief
and that that was something that used to be amazing about celebrities is like
you never got to see them
right and so you only got to see them and actors and you only get to see them
on screen and in this way
and so you really envision them that way i mean you would almost be shocked if
you saw a celebrity
in person or an actor in person uh who didn't like like indiana jones if he
didn't have his head i was
just gonna say that is that when i was a kid i kind of thought harrison ford
was that guy you know
what i mean like that's harrison ford i think he's probably the biggest you
know movie star of my
childhood and whether it was like you know indian jones or star wars like he
was the guy and i kind
of thought he was that guy and so it's a little weird to see that guy just like
you know in his
sneakers and his kind of raincoat walking around bretwood it's sort of like of
course it's disappointing
or or it's disillusioning or something because you you have this thing in your
mind that's people
went to a you know steven spielberg and george lucas went to a whole you know
use all their
talent went to a bunch of work to make this dude look like indiana jones and
han solo and i i think
what i've seen now is like i actually don't even want to see like the actors
that i really like i
don't want to go on your social because i don't want to know what you had for
lunch because it just
makes it harder for me to get into like what you know what you're doing um i
love that and that's i
think that is a real directorial way to think i think i mean i can see that in
your brain i mean
i'm just a judge i'm just a guy judging you they just met in a room somewhere
but um but i never
thought about that that that's how it is that yeah you don't want you want them
kind of you want to
hollywood has almost bitten its own tail in that way because there's this
underlying like valueless
current really that's kind of like a very cheap currency it's hollywood it's it's
hollywood sort of
adjacent adjacent this side of media that's what culture that that profits from
and circles and
there's a symbiotic relationship between hollywood and obviously like here i am
promoting my movie and
running around and now i don't want to go on like a tabloid and do that or
whatever it is but that
that becomes part of that culture too and and then you have like any interview
show or all these and
you're right in a sense it is hollywood because if you do a movie at universal
you know you'll see that
person's doing all nbc comcast owned you know talk shows and appearances right
like it's not a coincidence
because when they do their presentation in the boardroom for comcast to their
shareholders they
go look we make these movies we spend a lot of money and then we get the stars
and we plug them into
all of our other shows that we also own and there's a lot of synergy so on and
so forth the the idea
though is like okay there's that's a kind of a tax that you end up sort of
paying on your sort of
life and the one and on this thing that you're trying to build which is
something that connects
with people and moves them and that they want to go out to a movie theater and
pay good money to see
and it makes it a little bit harder than to have to kind of go around and do
all that other stuff
and be like okay well that's not who i really am and that's and and to try to
sort of be interesting
and relevant in some other way that isn't really what you kind of even wanted
to do and so so you're
right it's sort of part hollywood and also kind of hollywood adjacent it is
eating it's it does eat
its tail in a way because it's because the acting in the creation it's like a
watch looking at the
beauty of a lake right it's like this is picturesque and this is like how they
meant the waves to look
and there's a current here and there's an inflow and outflow and something
landed in the water over
here and left a ripple and something else is this is the b story and there's a
ripple but then it's
this under it's this all this stuff under it and it's almost starting to like
kind of drain its own
lake in a way good metaphor yeah like the jesus the movie has the kind of lake
and the underneath of
what's both what goes into it what happens beh