Two-time Academy Award winner Ben Affleck has recalled a tough moment in his acclaimed career when he was overlooked.
The 53-year-old Hollywood actor may have secured an Oscar for best screenwriter in 1998 for Good Will Hunting and for best picture in 2013 forArgo, but there’s one accolade that he is yet to secure – best director.
As the filmmaker behind Argo,a historical espionage thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage situation, his movie secured seven Oscar nominations and three wins, except for in the all-important director category.
In a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actor reflected on how deeply the snub affected him.
He recalled: ‘It was the year, 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 – and, by the way, it’s not [unlike] any other morning that 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.”‘
Late-night talk show host Jimmy echoed the horror Ben must have been feeling that day, calling it ‘maybe the worst award-show situation ever.’
He continued: ‘I think you’re underselling this. Because Argo, not only was it nominated for the Oscar for best picture, you won best picture.
‘You starred in it and directed it, and you were not nominated in either category … it’s as if the movie directed itself.’
The screenstar dubbed the day of the snub a ‘negative event and a horrible thing’.
He recalled having to attend the Critics’ Choice Awards shortly after, where ‘500 people [were] 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!’’
In the end, the Gone Girl star circled back to calling it ‘just embarrassing’ as he defended that he had never claimed he would be nominated, but still had to answer to the perceived snub.
Although he’s yet to be nominated or win best director, he does have a dazzling track record at Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.
In 1998, at the age of 25, he became the youngest writer to ever win an Oscar for screenwriting.
Nowadays, he is starring in Netflix’s new crime thriller, The Rip, opposite his industry bestie, Matt Damon.
In the cop movie, he plays Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne, and Matt steps into the shoes of his law enforcement partner, Lieutenant Dane Dumars.
When the Miami-Dade Tactical Narcotics Team discover 20 million dollars in cash during a bust, the situation quickly careens into high-stakes danger in hostile territory.
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