8
2006 SUPER ROLE Before
being Batman, Ben wasdrawn
to TV Superman GeorgeReeves
in Hollywoodland. “He was a very
gr egarious, generous, outgoingguy
who became this icon of masculinityin
’5 0s post-war America. But underneath
that was this really tragic, sad soul.”
7
2005
LEADING
LADY
Af terfallingin love
onthe set of
Daredevil, Ben
marriedJennifer
Garner,who
“p layedsucha
profoundrole
in makingme a
betterperson.”
And whilethe
marriagewasn’t
“p erfect”and
en dedin divorce
last year,Ben
re flected,“she
in spiredme to be
more mature.”9
201 2 BACKONTOPBen’scareer
hita highnotewhenhis directorial
ef fortArgowon an Oscarforbest
pi cture.“Mylifehasdefinitelybeena series
of upsanddowns,”he said.“I workedreally
ha rd,I madea bunchof movies,mostof
whichI like.Did I sellmyselfshortin places?
Ye ah.It’sniceto be in a differentzone.”10
2017 DOING JUSTICE With Justice
League, Ben hung up his cowl as
Batman. And his thinking was
simple. “Superhero movies get the level of
attention that is nothing like any film I’ve
done. That’s part of the pressure that comes
with doing it. That’s why I am not going to
do it unless I really feel confident aboutit.”3
1997 CHASING FAME Playing a guy
falling for a bisexual woman, Ben
got his break as a leading man in
Chasing Amy. “[But] this is not a movie I would
particularly want my grandparents to see. The
irony is that nobody has sex on camera and
nobody gets killed. You have a movie with
people talking the entire time. Yet [some6
2003 BAD RAP“It couldhave
beena badmovieno onecared
about.AngelinaJoliehada bad
movie thatyearandnobodycared,”Ben
sa id of the bombGigli. “Butbecause
I was datingJenniferLopez,that made
it a bi g deal....Andnotonlyis it a bad
movie,but‘they’redatingeachotherin
thebadmovie!’ ”4
1998 GOOD WILL “Most people
can’t point to the moment that
changed their life in such a dramatic
way, but I can. It was the moment [Robin
Williams] decided to take a flyer on [Good Will
Hunting],” shared Ben, who’d win an Academy
Award with Matt Damon for their screenplay.
“I’ll always feel a huge debt to him, although
now I’ll never get to repay it.”5
2002 SUM UP “If you’re a kid,
and you grow up in Boston,
getting to play Jack Ryan is
sort of like getting to play Hamlet,”
quipped Ben about The Sum of All
Fears, in which he followed both Alec
Baldwin and Harrison Ford in the role
of Tom Clancy’s famed CIA analyst.