Ben Affleck Makes Rare Comments About Jennifer Lopez Romance & 'Gigli' Backlash

Ben Affleck is opening up about Jennifer Lopez, as well as personal and professional struggles.

The 49-year-old The Last Duel actor got candid in a conversation with his friend Matt Damon for an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Here’s what he had to say…
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On getting older, and his performances in recent roles: “One of the nice things about getting older, if you’re lucky, is you stop bulls—ting yourself and you start going, ‘You know, I actually know where my feelings are.’ And the more I figured it out, the more accessible that was. I know what painful is and I know what disillusioned is and I know what ambivalent is, I know what nostalgia is.”

On Gigli: “It’s just that it became a story in and of itself. The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm. And I remember talking to Marty [Brest, director] the Friday it came out and I was like it’s just spectacular, it’s a tsunami, it couldn’t be worse. This is as bad as it gets…if the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, ‘I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,’ which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life. So in those ways, it’s a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer [Lopez], the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”

On tabloids: “Jennifer and I happened to be together at a time where the whole industry of celebrity journalism, if you want to call it that, sort of exploded. But I thought, “S–t, this is really not how I had hoped to go, where I’m going to be, what? Famous for being an a–hole or a failure and not able to work?”

On his friendship with Matt Damon: “This friendship has been essential and defining and so important to me in my life. Your support is so profoundly meaningful to me, and I don’t think I would have been able to be successful without it.”

Jennifer Lopez recently got fans talking with her 2022 resolutions.

For more from Ben Affleck, head to EW.com.