To promote his upcoming role in The Tender Bar, Ben Affleck stopped by The Howard Stern Show this week for an over two hour interview where he opened up about everything from his marriage to Jennifer Garner (which did not sit well after he seemingly blamed her for his drinking problem) to his roller coaster ride of a career. As everyone knows, Affleck was a blockbuster star before a series of flops torpedoed his career in the mid-2000s. After fading into the background, Affleck began making waves as a writer/director with 2010’s The Town. That led to his next film, 2012’s Argo, which immediately became a critical darling and an Oscar contender.
However, Affleck couldn’t help but notice that while the film racked up nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and even Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin), the Academy specifically didn’t recognize his contributions as lead actor and director. What stung even more is Affleck candidly admits that he wanted the Oscar, and he did everything Warner Bros. instructed him to do to get the nom.
“It was the big snub, right? That really taught me a lot,” Affleck said. “I did everything they told me. They told me, ‘You got to kiss the babies.’ And I schmoozed everybody in the world, right?”
When the snub became clear on the morning of the Oscar announcements, Affleck reveals that he called up Warner Bros. and said he’s never doing an Oscar campaign again. Via IndieWire:
“We had Editing, Score, Picture. The only guy who f*cked up was the lead and the director? I can do the math on who the asshole is here. That day, I had to go to the f*cking Critics Choice Awards, which has, if my memory is correct, the single longest fucking red carpet in humanity. Every single stop, you don’t even have to say anything, they just hold the mic and they say ‘So, snubbed?’ You have to pretend that you’re OK, pretend it didn’t bother you, because god forbid something bothered you.
Affleck then admitted to getting “hammered” at the Critics Choice Awards and slamming the Academy at the podium under the impression that Argo was dead at the Oscars, which ended up not being the case.
“We never lost another award,” Affleck sheepishly revealed while clearly embarrassed with how he acted.
(Via IndieWire)