Ben Affleck, you think, would have been simply over the moon with the seven Oscar nominations his Best Picture winner “Argo” earned back in 2013, but the actor turned filmmaker talked about his “embarassing” press experience surrounding his Best Director nomination “snub” (not the first or last filmmaker to experience this) while recently speaking on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (via Variety) to promote his new film “The Rip,” that sees him co-starring with longtime pal Matt Damon.
“It was the horrible thing of everyone telling you, ‘You’re gonna get nominated, you’re gonna get nominated for director.’ And so, of course, I wake up that morning, and sure enough, I had not been nominated for best director. But all of a sudden, it’s a massive embarrassment. I woke up and people [said], ‘You didn’t get nominated’…The day of the snub, which all of a sudden it’s a negative event and a horrible thing, I had to go to the Critics Choice Awards. I remember getting there, and there’s a red carpet line, like 500 people dying to talk to me, and every single one of them was like, ‘Hi! So the snub…’ What do you say to that? ‘It’s a bummer!’ I did end up winning the Critics Choice Award. Honestly, it’s just embarrassing. I wasn’t the one going out there being like, “I’m going to be nominated!’ It’s having to be put through the ritual of then answering for why you didn’t get nominated. I didn’t say I was [going to be]!,” Affleck recently told Kimmel about his gripe about the atmosphere before and after the Oscar nominations.
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The movie, which won for Best Picture (Affleck taking a statue home alongside George Clooney and Grant Heslov), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing, at the time, experienced various criticisms, including Affleck casting himself to play a CIA Agent with Mexican heritage and the many inaccuracies in the script, alongside a reduced presence/agency for the female characters trapped in Iran, who had a much more active part in those true-life events. That said, “Argo” certainly was a success on many levels ($232.3 million on a budget of $44 million-plus isn’t bad), even if he didn’t get the recognition for helming it.
Affleck sharing his frustrations isn’t exactly shocking, but hopefully, he can square up and move on from that negative experience, since his directing career isn’t over, and another chance at a nomination is far from out of reach for him. That said, his latest directorial effort is the crime thriller “Animals,” coming to Netflix later in the year. Boasting another impressive cast led by Affleck, with others such as Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Ray Fisher, Matt Gerald, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Steven Yeun featured in the pic.
You can watch Affleck’s appearance with Kimmel below, as “The Rip” debuts on January 16, exclusively on Netflix.
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