Ben Affleck calls himself an ‘ageing alcoholic screenwriter’ in actor roundtable

Ellie Harrison

25 February 2021 at 4:17 am·2-min read

Ben Affleck has opened up about his struggles with alcoholism in an actor roundtable.

Speaking to Sacha Baron Cohen, Delroy Lindo, Gary Oldman, John David Washington and Steven Yeun for a Hollywood Reporter article, Affleck spoke candidly about being a recovering alcoholic and how that informed his latest role, The Way Back.

Affleck has won rave reviews for his performance in the film, in which he stars as Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball superstar who is stuck in a meaningless job and struggling with alcoholism – an illness that ruined the character’s marriage.

“I’m a recovering alcoholic and I played an alcoholic in the movie,” Affleck said, adding that while alcoholism itself is not “inherently super interesting”, it is what people discover about themselves in the course of recovery that he finds fascinating.

He said: “So yes, I’m an alcoholic. Yes, I had a relapse. Yes, I went into recovery again. And then I went and did that movie. But for me, the movie was much more about the fact that – whether it’s having lived enough years, having seen enough ups and downs, having had children and divorce – I’m at a point now in my life where I have sufficient life experience to bring to a role to make it really interesting for me.”

Affleck concluded by joking: “I didn’t have to do research for the alcoholism aspect of the movie – that was covered. It was the Daniel Day-Lewis approach to that!”

The actor told Oldman, who is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in Mank, that he thinks his movie is “magnificent”.

He said: “I mean, I also happen to identify with being an ageing alcoholic screenwriter, so maybe I’m biased, but it’s incredible.”

Mank, out now on Netflix, tells the story of Herman Mankiewicz, the Hollywood screenwriter who was involved in developing the script for Orson Welles’ seminal 1941 film Citizen Kane.