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“The Sum of All Fears” Interview

Ben Affleck has no delusions about stepping into a role played by the iconic actor already so well known to moviegoers as the hero of author Tom Clancy‘s espionage thrillers.

“If Harrison Ford had wanted to do this movie,” the actor offers, “I’d be buying a ticket.”

Affleck’s talking, of course, about taking over the role of Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears, a film that initially went into development with the expectation that Ford, who previously played the adventurous CIA analyst in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, would be along for the ride.

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Ford himself had successfully taken over the role from Alec Baldwin, who originated it in The Hunt for Red October. But when the veteran movie star decided not to return for the third time, it was unclear if any other actor would be as successful slipping into Ryan’s conservative government loafers–especially since by The Sum of All Fears, the character in the novel series had become the president of the United States.

But in the tradition of franchise flicks like the James Bond and Batman films, the studio and the producers forged ahead, looking for the next generation of Jack Ryan. And once they settled on an approach to reinvigorate both the character and the series, they found their man in Ben Affleck. But until Affleck came into the picture, the film might never have made it before the cameras.

Executive decisions

Producer Mace Neufeld had successfully shepherded the previous three Tom Clancy novels into cinematic life, and had toiled on developing yet another, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, for quite some time before deeming the project “hopeless.”

Instead, Neufeld shifted his attention to another Clancy tome, The Sum of All Fears, and while Ford was initially on board to reprise Jack Ryan, that book also posed some
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serious script challenges given Ryan’s rise to the highest levels of government. Not only did it make it tough to believably bring Ryan into the center of the action, it was also a case of “been there, done that” for Ford.

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“Harrison in the public’s mind had gone from an analyst to the deputy director of the CIA to the president of the United States, and he’d already played that in Air Force One,” says Neufeld. “So we couldn’t come up with a script that made him happy.”

Reluctantly, Ford eventually moved on to accept a role in director Kathryn Bigelow‘s K-19: The Widowmaker, leaving Neufeld “left holding the Ryan bag” with no star and an unworkable script. About a week after Ford’s departure, Neufeld says he got a call from Paramount head Sherry Lansing after she had a serious conversation with Affleck‘s agent about the 29-year-old actor assuming the role of Jack Ryan.

Affleck confirms that was “a huge fan” of the character and the whole Tom Clancy genre. “I read all the Jack Ryan books, really loved this storyline and franchise. It was, obviously, kind of a big deal for me.”

“I said, ‘I love him but let me think about it,'” says Neufeld. “For about 15 minutes I thought about it, and I thought, ‘Well, the only way to do this is to make him the rookie, and to give him a mentor and get him involved in this situation. And all of a sudden the script started to look very easy to me…We said, ‘Listen, we’ll ignore the fact that we made three movies with Jack Ryan. This is a new movie with Jack Ryan.”

“You’d have to ask Harrison ultimately why he decided not to do it, because I’m sure he still could have done it and it still could have been great,” said Affleck. “I certainly don’t liken myself to Harrison Ford and say ‘Hey, I’m the next Harrison Ford’ or ‘I’m as great as this guy is.’ I’m a huge fan of his and only look at what he did with humility.”

The actor was most excited about the dramatic possibilities of playing Ryan, whom audiences know as a seasoned professional, as an untested rookie. “When they first called me I said, “Well, how are you gonna do that, this is impossible, it can’t work,” Affleck says.

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“What I thought was interesting was showing this guy when he was green and new and unsure of himself and making mistakes. When you see who this guy is before he polished himself up…That’s something that Harrison Ford would never do. And so I thought, ‘That I can do.’ I can play a guy who’s learning on the job and still figuring it out. I can’t play an icon.”

Within the week, Lansing had a conversation with Clancy about Affleck (Neufeld said that if Clancy had balked, the actor would probably not have been cast) and soon both Affleck and director Phil Alden Robinson were on board.

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“I got lucky,” says Neufeld of snaring both Affleck and Robinson in the eleventh hour. “All our Jack Ryans have been able to project that honesty, that stubbornness, that incorruptibility and smarts.” Affleck has all that in spades, Neufeld contends.

Spy games

Director Robinson, whose past films such as Field of Dreams dealt with decidedly softer and more heartfelt subject matter, thought of himself as an equally unconventional a candidate for the film. “I was the most illogical choice you could possibly think of,” he says. “I said to Sherry Lansing, ‘Are you nuts? Do you want the gentler Tom Clancy film where nothing happens and everybody’s nice to each other?'”

Nevetheless, Robinson was also intrigued by the notion of a green Jack Ryan, so much so that he considered changing the script to make it Ryan’s first day on the job. “We really wanted to embrace the fact that this is a young guy and not hide it,” he says. “I think that’s the strength of the character–he’s an anonymous CIA analyst.”

Also, Robinson says casting a more iconic actor–and Robinson’s worked with his share, from Kevin Costner to Robert Redford–seemed to run contrary to the audience empathy inherent in a “more Everyman kind of character…I don’t know how you do an action film with those [iconic] guys.”

For Affleck, the final hurdle was meeting with master of Jack Ryan’s fictional universe himself, Tom Clancy. Fortunately, the actor was appreciative of Clancy’s cut-to-the-chase personal style. “Tom is a very straight-shooting kind of guy,” says Affleck. “The discussions were along the lines of [imitates Clancy’s clipped tone], ‘So, you want to play Jack Ryan, huh?’ I appreciated that. He’s direct, he’s no bullshit, he’s extremely smart. I don’t always agree with his politics, but I always find that there are very smart reasons why he feels the way he does.

“Fortunately he decided, ‘I think you’d be great, kid,'” continues the actor, who was aware that if the author gave him an unofficial “thumbs-down” Neufeld would have continued his search for Jack Ryan. “I certainly wouldn’t have done it if he did want me to. For one thing, I believe the person who authored the character ought to have say over who plays him. I just believe that as a writer. And second of all, I wouldn’t want to be sitting here and have the first question out of [journalists’] mouths be, ‘Y’know, Tom Clancy thinks you suck.’

Analyze this

To avoid sucking, Affleck took pains to carefully research his role, and was pleased to discover that a youthful Jack Ryan was not a far-fetched script creation. “I visited the CIA, I spent a couple of days there,” he says. “There are an awful lot of analysts who

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are my age…Ryan’s at a point where he’s got a degree and he’s done his time in the military, so it’s pretty accurate that at 29 years old he might have been working there for about 18 months and just starting out as an analyst. I think the CIA has to trust everyone they have working for them, otherwise they’re completely screwed.”

Apparently, the actor passed muster with the real deal, according to the film’s official CIA consultant, Chase Brandon. “Ben came to headquarters and spent a day with the real Jack and Jill Ryans,” Brandon says. “If the day should ever come that Ben should want to take off the dark shades of a Hollywood actor, he should consider putting on the dark shades of a clandestine operative.”

To counterbalance Affleck‘s youthful appeal, veteran actor Morgan Freeman was tapped to bring in his trademark “gravitas” as the young Ryan’s CIA mentor. Upon getting to know Affleck, Freeman threw any concerns about the actor measuring up to his predecessors out the window.

“Let’s just take the looks on faith,” says Freeman. “Here’s a guy with a boatload of talent in a lot of different areas–and very, very dedicated to what he’s doing. He’s a serious actor and I think he’s very good.” Freeman dismisses comparisons to Ford and Baldwin: “He fills the shoes of Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan.”

The moviegoers will deliver the final verdict, of course, but the buzz on the film is high, and Affleck displays an easy, enjoyable chemistry with his co-stars Bridget Moynahan (Ryan’s wife-to-be ) and Liev Schreiber (mercenary operative John Clark) as well as a convincingly in-over-his-head quality when acting against Freeman.

Moynahan admits she has signed for a sequel, but Affleck, who’s currently at work on the film version of the Marvel Comics character Daredevil, is cagier, saying he’s not been officially tapped for any more–but he’ll wait with fingers crossed when the box-office tallies start rolling in.

“I’d hate to be the guy who screwed up the Jack Ryan franchise,” he says, “because they’ll put that on my tombstone.”

Audience response notwithstanding, Affleck seems to have won over at least one significant fan–namely, Jack Ryan’s creator. Neufeld said he has the first option on Red Rabbit, the next Clancy book featuring Ryan, which is due in bookstores in August. Clancy’s story “deals with a young Jack Ryan,” says Neufeld with a knowing grin. “I wonder why he did that?”

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