Name: Ben Affleck on Why It's So Hard to Make a Good Movie
Uploaded: 2025-04-24T21:17:07.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Affleck on Why It's So Hard to Make a Good Movie' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Affleck on Why It's So Hard to Make a Good Movie' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-04-24. Transcript available.

like the currency of like fame in and of itself as a desirable thing like
people go man I want
to be rich and famous like take rich yeah you know what I mean you know famous
is not not gonna
make you happy yeah it seems like it will because it's like oh people like me
know my name and kind
of know who I am and I'll feel like I've done something I think a lot of times
what happens
is if it doesn't come with a real sense of like achievement or accomplishment
yeah actually feels
hollow and empty and like bullshit and like and undeserved do you think you
wanted to start
directing because it gave you even more of a sense of accomplishment uh yeah I
wanted to that a weird
question but does that make any sense no it does make sense I wanted to I
really I didn't I wanted
to fail on my own terms because I had gone through some movies that where I was
like I don't like this
I don't agree with this but you you know you got to do how it's like being a
playing a football team
whatever you got to run the plays that the coach sets up you know what I mean
they're gonna you know
run a draw play you know get the ball and you know turn around and run a sweep
right because they're not
blocking that way you know what I mean it's just that's that's not gonna work
right so you that's
how the that whole art form is sort of structured uh by and large and what I
found was you know I had
a real strong sense of the way I wanted to do it and I when I when it didn't
work when it worked I
didn't feel great because it wasn't me that had that feel you know I didn't
feel like I didn't feel
proud of it and when it didn't work I just felt pissed off like fucking I didn't
want to fucking
do it right god damn I I didn't want to you know I I said it I knew it and that's
a terrible feeling
so I'd rather fail on my own terms or succeed on my own terms and I and that's
where I kind of got
into to directing and oh I always I wanted to do it even when I was younger and
I liked I just didn't
have the confidence and at a certain point I kind of had nothing to lose and
that was really what
kind of gave me the courage to take that leap and into directing you mean yeah
because my like as
an actor I sort of I got real cold and like had a couple of movies that didn't
work and then
you know all of a sudden it can be kind of over for you that's why it's a tough
really business
fuck yeah man like there's no like uh seniority there's no tenure there's no it's
a good you know
retirement no gold watch if if your show doesn't work or movie doesn't work and
nobody wants to hire
you like they're just gonna hire someone else you know it's there's a 130,000
people in SAG and
there's only 30,000 people that work every year right and then there's a even
smaller amount of
those roles where you know you have more than two lines so it's a very it's
very tough right and so
if you're not people aren't watching not coming or it's not interesting see you
later have you ever
made a movie that you that you didn't put out or that wasn't put out oh yeah uh
early on I made
you know a bunch of movies that were like independent movies that you know they
didn't have like
distribution that I'm like a studio that said okay we're paying for this and
when it's finished we're
gonna put a bunch of money in advertising because you got to spend a bunch more
money to advertise
a movie after you make it right and or at least you know and that that's one of
the big things
that's changing now people are like okay how can we do this in a more
intelligent way because
all that money spent on television commercials just a wasted now that's that's
why I'm here like
this is a much more effective way to do it you know what I mean yeah dude it
seems exciting
well here's the thing I think when you tell me that it's good I honestly think
that I believe
you that it's going to be good yeah I'm telling the truth the movie is really
good I wouldn't be
like if you had a movie that wasn't good you just you kind of do a few the
basic things and
because look it's going to turn out like you know you're going to it's going to
be a bell curve one
way or the other the better you are you're going to move your bell curve a
little bit further down
and have a better chunk of movies but I got about like 12 movies that I really
love and I'm proud of
and about 25 that are like I like this I didn't like that you know and about 10
or 12 whatever
that are like that's fucking terrible I hate this I can't watch it it was awful
and when I did
independent movies they would sometimes they just didn't get distribution like
no one wanted to put
it out or I went to a film festival I haven't had movies that were so like just
something so terrible
happened when the studio already was making it that it wasn't put out but you
know you have like
they changed their plan you can kind of see oh now we're gonna shift to this or
that now you can put
something on streaming and it you don't used to be like you were gonna go out
theatrical so you kind
of were like naked you just had your you know what I mean and and if it didn't
work everybody knew
because they're saying look this movie made 10 cents this weekend and you know
you'd want them to
take the fucking billboard down you drive past the billboard like the billboard's
like you're the
bomb the movie's bomb you know you're up there at night in your batman costume
just painting over
it with a big one of those big paint reachers something about your movie with
Dave Spade who do you play
like what is it's comedy yeah it's just bus boys it's like he's like a um guy
he's just like we're
just two kind of dumb guys or whatever we just got the first edit through so it's
like I'm watching
it right now let me tell you like that first cut of the movie like when I see
the first cut of my own
movie I want to kill myself really like you should not go crazy seeing the
first cut and not like it
I almost have never like now I have a company and we make a bunch of movies and
you know the first cut
it's this is one of the only movies where the first cut came in I was like it's
great really 90% of time
you're like okay we got a long way to go it's a very iterative process they get
better and more work
is done after you finish shooting to make it good yeah that's what I'm doing so
I'm meeting with an editor
next week sit down yeah and be like this is what's supposed to be funny about
this scene
right like and explain it to them what you think is funny and is good because
they it may seem obvious to
you and it probably doesn't to that person like you can lose track you go look
the reason it's funny
is because you think we're going to do this we we know this about us from the
first you know whatever
scene and we come in it's that take where I like yelled at the guy that should
be a surprise like
you'd be surprised how often it's hard to put a cut go in and tell it's tough
because I've been
spending my nights like watch and now I'm it feels shitty too to put your all
that work into it and look
at it go the fuck is this right it's the worst feeling in the world it feels
fucking horrible because it's like
I'm very particular about like what I create like you said in the beginning it's
like I like to make things
I know what I want you know it's like I know my intuition and if I fail on my
intuition then that's exactly
where I want to fail because that's pure to me right like that's okay yeah and
like that's what you want to do great
right but it's a very tricky thing for other people to know that you yes and to
know you know what I mean
your sense of humor your worldview is all obvious to you right but it's just
not to people so a lot of times you have to spend
like more time than you would have thought literally going here's what should
be funny
right if you can explain the joke like you're a super funny guy funny comedian
you understand comedy very well
so you can sit and break it down to him and go like you got to know this about
it what's funny is that you
know we didn't expect me to do this right that's a callback to this other
moment or the the whole thing
that when I did it what I thought was funny is this take where I did that like
because on the set
I'm sure you know you're if you're doing a comedy and you shot it you had
moments where you were like
that's funny right that I think that's funny I think that's good yeah you
sometimes it's literally
about going back into the dailies and saying like okay go find the close-up or
find this two shot
the thing where I said to David and David looked at me like this and whatever
that was the one where
I left and thought yeah that works like there's no mystery or magic to why they're
doing it a
different way they oftentimes just need feedback it's it is this is not like
sculpting or writing
a novel it's not a single person you know it's collaborative it has to be
collaborative right
if I'm directing a movie with you in it and it obviously is going to have your
comic sensibility
like I got to know and get what's funny to you or I'm not the guy right um and
and I'm going to need
help along the way any director is going like so how come what what do you
imagine about this or what
do you think you know what I mean like that's why you have to explain it and
sort of talk about it
because that person's got to understand all those things that made you be funny
in the first place
and start going oh people are laughing when I say oh these are funny you know
what I mean and yeah and
you've put it together and professionalized it but like you got to share that
with them otherwise
really and then this is also where people sometimes get into fights of course
because
people's ego gets in the way but ego will kill you you have to be able to hear
I don't care what
you do you have to be able to hear like this doesn't work this is dog shit
because the audience will tell
you know what I mean that's the thing and it's like I'm so particular I'm not
particular but I just
know what kind of his work you know that's valuable because not everybody does
so what you have right
is that awareness you don't think about it you don't have you feel it right you're
like that feels
funny or when you see something like this feels wrong like makes you
uncomfortable right you see
yeah so that is a thing that's unique to you right so you need to like give
them access to that and
get it and when you you know and if somebody's gonna like take it person it's
it's not personal
like it's your you know and what David thought was funny like okay like you
have to be connected in
that way and you have to understand that it's not about like okay fuck you guys
now I'm gonna go make
my vision of this thing no that's a disaster no no no I just think like yeah
like this is why this
was written this way and this is why it's funny and so this is the first time
that we're like more
hands-on with it um then you should definitely be hands-on because by the way
no one's gonna do it for
you right oh I agree with that on its own man it's gonna get better if you get
in and work on it and
by the way you're gonna see it again and you have to go okay closer now let's
try this let's try that
and then again the way movies that get better really is iterative it's like it's
like it's
like coats of paint you know what I mean you got to keep on go it's like a good
paint job on a car
it's like 12 coats of paint that's why it looks good you know what I mean that's
um do movies do
movies take a long time to edit sometimes yeah 26 weeks is the post-production
schedule for most
movies right that includes uh music yeah and and it's it's longer than the
production you're trying
to grab everything you can during production it's more expensive every day to
shoot editing is you
rent the editing room facilities we needed an owl one day we had an owl right
this bitch it was
eleven hundred dollars an hour for an owl yeah it was like a semi-endangered I
don't want to say
endanger whatever but it was like writ at do they charge more if it's like you
know what I mean
like if you can get a chicken they're not in danger you can kill that shit just
cut his head
up that's ten dollars for the owl you can get a tall chicken no one's gonna
know the difference
you can take the chicken break his neck and he's turned around you can get a
tall curious chicken
we'll give you that I think maybe that's just like one of those things where it's
like what's
the rate for owls you just get to make it up if you sell owls it's just so it's
like god you get
into there and there's just all this animal entrapment I um what else was I
thinking about
would you let your children well let's I want to talk to you a little bit more
about directing so
um because argo you directed right and did you care about the middle east how
much were like a
middle east guy I knew you I've read some not really I did I did study the
middle east in school
and so I understood uh uh about it I wouldn't make a movie that I didn't it'd
be like making a movie
with you and not getting your humor right like it would just be crazy like you
if as the director
you got to care more be more interested in that movie than everybody else
everyone's gonna be
bored of it right you've got to love it the whole time through so the big key
is like this is gonna
be interesting to me there was a lot of things that were interesting to me
about that movie one was a
real story the CIA agent who had done it the the guy the people that I met and
talked to at the CIA
the actual nature of like intelligence work versus you know what you have seen
with a like you know
you know like super spy shit that's not really realistic and and this story was
really interesting
to me and also I thought it was like the fact that they had this like bizarre
connection to Hollywood
and this Hollywood makeup artist and that we're trying to bridge those two
worlds was was really
interesting to me but it was a scary challenging movie because the director's
main job is tone
right like that's the main dress of the director is going to really create is
like what's the tone of
this like what's the vibe what's are we is this serious what are we interested
in like what do we
consider funny what do we you know all those things that that you know go into
all the choices we make
in life from the car you get the clothes you buy all that what kind of what is
your taste and not
everyone's gonna like it right some people it's just not gonna be their taste
you got at least make it as good
as you can to your own taste like you said your own instincts yeah you got to
find that tone that
matches because people want to believe they're going to expect a certain tone
from you as well I think you know
and when you don't when that tone doesn't work you're like this is kind of crass
Jesus fucking you know
what I mean corny it's like it's it seems silly or whatever and it's like
because you're asking
someone to take something seriously that they can't take seriously or or think
is funny that they don't
think is funny and and that's where it's a it's a tricky kind of nebulous job
but that that's the
most interesting to me important thing about it and that's yeah you know
Thank you.

Ben Affleck on Why It's So Hard to Make a Good Movie

like the currency of like fame in and of itself as a desirable thing like
people go man I want
to be rich and famous like take rich yeah you know what I mean you know famous
is not not gonna
make you happy yeah it seems like it will because it's like oh people like me
know my name and kind
of know who I am and I'll feel like I've done something I think a lot of times
what happens
is if it doesn't come with a real sense of like achievement or accomplishment
yeah actually feels
hollow and empty and like bullshit and like and undeserved do you think you
wanted to start
directing because it gave you even more of a sense of accomplishment uh yeah I
wanted to that a weird
question but does that make any sense no it does make sense I wanted to I
really I didn't I wanted
to fail on my own terms because I had gone through some movies that where I was
like I don't like this
I don't agree with this but you you know you got to do how it's like being a
playing a football team
whatever you got to run the plays that the coach sets up you know what I mean
they're gonna you know
run a draw play you know get the ball and you know turn around and run a sweep
right because they're not
blocking that way you know what I mean it's just that's that's not gonna work
right so you that's
how the that whole art form is sort of structured uh by and large and what I
found was you know I had
a real strong sense of the way I wanted to do it and I when I when it didn't
work when it worked I
didn't feel great because it wasn't me that had that feel you know I didn't
feel like I didn't feel
proud of it and when it didn't work I just felt pissed off like fucking I didn't
want to fucking
do it right god damn I I didn't want to you know I I said it I knew it and that's
a terrible feeling
so I'd rather fail on my own terms or succeed on my own terms and I and that's
where I kind of got
into to directing and oh I always I wanted to do it even when I was younger and
I liked I just didn't
have the confidence and at a certain point I kind of had nothing to lose and
that was really what
kind of gave me the courage to take that leap and into directing you mean yeah
because my like as
an actor I sort of I got real cold and like had a couple of movies that didn't
work and then
you know all of a sudden it can be kind of over for you that's why it's a tough
really business
fuck yeah man like there's no like uh seniority there's no tenure there's no it's
a good you know
retirement no gold watch if if your show doesn't work or movie doesn't work and
nobody wants to hire
you like they're just gonna hire someone else you know it's there's a 130,000
people in SAG and
there's only 30,000 people that work every year right and then there's a even
smaller amount of
those roles where you know you have more than two lines so it's a very it's
very tough right and so
if you're not people aren't watching not coming or it's not interesting see you
later have you ever
made a movie that you that you didn't put out or that wasn't put out oh yeah uh
early on I made
you know a bunch of movies that were like independent movies that you know they
didn't have like
distribution that I'm like a studio that said okay we're paying for this and
when it's finished we're
gonna put a bunch of money in advertising because you got to spend a bunch more
money to advertise
a movie after you make it right and or at least you know and that that's one of
the big things
that's changing now people are like okay how can we do this in a more
intelligent way because
all that money spent on television commercials just a wasted now that's that's
why I'm here like
this is a much more effective way to do it you know what I mean yeah dude it
seems exciting
well here's the thing I think when you tell me that it's good I honestly think
that I believe
you that it's going to be good yeah I'm telling the truth the movie is really
good I wouldn't be
like if you had a movie that wasn't good you just you kind of do a few the
basic things and
because look it's going to turn out like you know you're going to it's going to
be a bell curve one
way or the other the better you are you're going to move your bell curve a
little bit further down
and have a better chunk of movies but I got about like 12 movies that I really
love and I'm proud of
and about 25 that are like I like this I didn't like that you know and about 10
or 12 whatever
that are like that's fucking terrible I hate this I can't watch it it was awful
and when I did
independent movies they would sometimes they just didn't get distribution like
no one wanted to put
it out or I went to a film festival I haven't had movies that were so like just
something so terrible
happened when the studio already was making it that it wasn't put out but you
know you have like
they changed their plan you can kind of see oh now we're gonna shift to this or
that now you can put
something on streaming and it you don't used to be like you were gonna go out
theatrical so you kind
of were like naked you just had your you know what I mean and and if it didn't
work everybody knew
because they're saying look this movie made 10 cents this weekend and you know
you'd want them to
take the fucking billboard down you drive past the billboard like the billboard's
like you're the
bomb the movie's bomb you know you're up there at night in your batman costume
just painting over
it with a big one of those big paint reachers something about your movie with
Dave Spade who do you play
like what is it's comedy yeah it's just bus boys it's like he's like a um guy
he's just like we're
just two kind of dumb guys or whatever we just got the first edit through so it's
like I'm watching
it right now let me tell you like that first cut of the movie like when I see
the first cut of my own
movie I want to kill myself really like you should not go crazy seeing the
first cut and not like it
I almost have never like now I have a company and we make a bunch of movies and
you know the first cut
it's this is one of the only movies where the first cut came in I was like it's
great really 90% of time
you're like okay we got a long way to go it's a very iterative process they get
better and more work
is done after you finish shooting to make it good yeah that's what I'm doing so
I'm meeting with an editor
next week sit down yeah and be like this is what's supposed to be funny about
this scene
right like and explain it to them what you think is funny and is good because
they it may seem obvious to
you and it probably doesn't to that person like you can lose track you go look
the reason it's funny
is because you think we're going to do this we we know this about us from the
first you know whatever
scene and we come in it's that take where I like yelled at the guy that should
be a surprise like
you'd be surprised how often it's hard to put a cut go in and tell it's tough
because I've been
spending my nights like watch and now I'm it feels shitty too to put your all
that work into it and look
at it go the fuck is this right it's the worst feeling in the world it feels
fucking horrible because it's like
I'm very particular about like what I create like you said in the beginning it's
like I like to make things
I know what I want you know it's like I know my intuition and if I fail on my
intuition then that's exactly
where I want to fail because that's pure to me right like that's okay yeah and
like that's what you want to do great
right but it's a very tricky thing for other people to know that you yes and to
know you know what I mean
your sense of humor your worldview is all obvious to you right but it's just
not to people so a lot of times you have to spend
like more time than you would have thought literally going here's what should
be funny
right if you can explain the joke like you're a super funny guy funny comedian
you understand comedy very well
so you can sit and break it down to him and go like you got to know this about
it what's funny is that you
know we didn't expect me to do this right that's a callback to this other
moment or the the whole thing
that when I did it what I thought was funny is this take where I did that like
because on the set
I'm sure you know you're if you're doing a comedy and you shot it you had
moments where you were like
that's funny right that I think that's funny I think that's good yeah you
sometimes it's literally
about going back into the dailies and saying like okay go find the close-up or
find this two shot
the thing where I said to David and David looked at me like this and whatever
that was the one where
I left and thought yeah that works like there's no mystery or magic to why they're
doing it a
different way they oftentimes just need feedback it's it is this is not like
sculpting or writing
a novel it's not a single person you know it's collaborative it has to be
collaborative right
if I'm directing a movie with you in it and it obviously is going to have your
comic sensibility
like I got to know and get what's funny to you or I'm not the guy right um and
and I'm going to need
help along the way any director is going like so how come what what do you
imagine about this or what
do you think you know what I mean like that's why you have to explain it and
sort of talk about it
because that person's got to understand all those things that made you be funny
in the first place
and start going oh people are laughing when I say oh these are funny you know
what I mean and yeah and
you've put it together and professionalized it but like you got to share that
with them otherwise
really and then this is also where people sometimes get into fights of course
because
people's ego gets in the way but ego will kill you you have to be able to hear
I don't care what
you do you have to be able to hear like this doesn't work this is dog shit
because the audience will tell
you know what I mean that's the thing and it's like I'm so particular I'm not
particular but I just
know what kind of his work you know that's valuable because not everybody does
so what you have right
is that awareness you don't think about it you don't have you feel it right you're
like that feels
funny or when you see something like this feels wrong like makes you
uncomfortable right you see
yeah so that is a thing that's unique to you right so you need to like give
them access to that and
get it and when you you know and if somebody's gonna like take it person it's
it's not personal
like it's your you know and what David thought was funny like okay like you
have to be connected in
that way and you have to understand that it's not about like okay fuck you guys
now I'm gonna go make
my vision of this thing no that's a disaster no no no I just think like yeah
like this is why this
was written this way and this is why it's funny and so this is the first time
that we're like more
hands-on with it um then you should definitely be hands-on because by the way
no one's gonna do it for
you right oh I agree with that on its own man it's gonna get better if you get
in and work on it and
by the way you're gonna see it again and you have to go okay closer now let's
try this let's try that
and then again the way movies that get better really is iterative it's like it's
like it's
like coats of paint you know what I mean you got to keep on go it's like a good
paint job on a car
it's like 12 coats of paint that's why it looks good you know what I mean that's
um do movies do
movies take a long time to edit sometimes yeah 26 weeks is the post-production
schedule for most
movies right that includes uh music yeah and and it's it's longer than the
production you're trying
to grab everything you can during production it's more expensive every day to
shoot editing is you
rent the editing room facilities we needed an owl one day we had an owl right
this bitch it was
eleven hundred dollars an hour for an owl yeah it was like a semi-endangered I
don't want to say
endanger whatever but it was like writ at do the