HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 9, 2003 — Stars were seeing red–literally–at the Daredevil premiere, where tons of movie posters featuring Ben Affleck’s red leather-clad superhero lined the familiar crimson carpet.
A crowd of screaming fans was abuzz with anticipation as the first sleek black limos arrived Sunday evening to deposit their chauffeured charges at the Fox Village Theater in L.A.’s Westwood. Among the burning questions: Would Jennifer Lopez join her famous fiancé for the flick? Would Britney Spears, who recently accompanied Colin Farrell (aka DD’s main baddie Bullseye) to the premiere of his film The Recruit, appear on the roguish Irishman’s arm again? What would Jennifer Garner wear?
The answers were yes, no and not much, respectively–although after greeting fans and showing off her pink diamond engagement ring, the serenely gorgeous Lopez kept a low–or is that J. Low?–profile, occasionally peeking out from behind bodyguards and a movie poster featuring her man in red tights as Affleck worked the press line.
Hollywood.com cornered Affleck and gave him the green light to do what he hadn’t yet done for any other major media outlets: finally announce where and when he and Lopez would be tying the knot. So tongue-in-cheek was his answer, “You got me: Right here, on Valentine’s Day,” we decided we probably shouldn’t rent a tux on Feb. 14.
We also asked the impeccably tailored star if he ever wore his costume at home for the entertainment of his lady love. “All the time!” he insisted. “No, I just fight crime in it. If I hear of a purse snatching in the neighborhood, then I will throw the costume on. The last time I did that, though, by the time I had the thing all put on and zipped up and I got there, they just gave me funny looks.”
He also mentioned the particular interest writer-director buddy Kevin Smith (who once wrote Darevdevil’s comic book adventures and cameos in the film as a morgue attendant) has in the actor’s red superhero costume: “He wants me to come over and have me wear it and rub oil on him,” Affleck said with a shrug.
For his part, Smith countered that he just wants to try it on himself. “Totally. Who wouldn’t? I wanted to see how far my gut would hang out of it.”
Meanwhile, on the identity of Colin Farrell’s date: He brought his mom, Rita. The actor, clad simply in a gray T-shirt and dark pants, stopped briefly for a few interviews and paparazzi shots, abandoning the red carpet altogether to sign autographs and shake hands with the fans before finally heading into the theater.
As for the impossibly fit Jennifer Garner, her sheer, clingy Roberto Cavalli slip dress definitively showed just how fit the Alias star really is–it was only slightly less revealing than the curve-hugging leather costume she wears as Daredevil’s lover-enemy Elektra. Strolling the carpet hand-in-hand with hubby Scott Foley (whom she unintentionally dragged away just as he was about to spill dirt about his new sitcom A.S.U.A.), Garner offered some insight into her complex comic character. “She is driven by vengeance and she’s a very dark woman, but the great thing about this movie is it starts with her falling in love,” she revealed. “I got to play the tenderness and the blissfulness of falling in love, and also her vengeful darker side.”
Garner also explained down the appeal of Daredevil, who’s not quite as well known as his Marvel Comic brethren Spider-Man and the Hulk. She said the secret is his status as a street-level underdog. “He’s real–he’s superhuman, not a superhero. He’s a normal guy who happens to have these incredibly acute senses. And he’s compelled to be out in the world taking care of crimes, one at a time. He’s not about saving the whole world; he’s about saving his neighborhood, a 10-block radius. And it’s not the huge crimes–it’s saving a little boy from being beaten, or saving a woman from being raped.”
Speaking of the other Marvel superheroes, Hollywood.com caught up with Stan Lee, the comic company’s publisher emeritus and creator of Daredevil, Spidey, the X-Men and many other iconic characters (he also has a clever cameo in the film). “Almost all our heroes are handicapped in some way or other, and I was looking for what you might call the ultimate handicap,” Lee recalled of the impetus to create his red-clad champion. “I thought ‘Jeez, if you can make a blind man a superhero, that would be the greatest triumph.'”
After creating all these heroes, is it gratifying for Lee to hear so
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many big Hollywood players tell you that you’re their hero? “Oh, I love it!” he grinned. “I never in a million years thought it would happen, but when all of these big stars start thanking me–and I’m very gracious. I say, ‘You’re welcome.’ ” [Laughs]
Michael Clarke Duncan, who plays the villain Kingpin, watched his on-screen nemesis Affleck snuggle with Lopez up ahead on the red carpet and mused, “I think when you get with a woman, they settle you more–especially a good woman. And he’s become more settled.” As for playing the hero and getting the girl himself, Duncan is in no hurry. “I just like to be the evil guy. I don’t want to be a superhero,” he said. “I think it pays well to be evil.”
Hollywood.com asked the heavy hitter if he got to do any wire work, and if so, how many men did it take to lift his then-300-plus-pound. frame off the ground (Duncan is now a svelte 285)? “No, the Kingpin does not get slung around,” he replied in his character’s menacing baritone. “Only the ‘Sexiest Man [Alive] gets slung around.” Duncan was happy to do the slinging when came to his co-star from Armageddon. “When I read the script I saw I get to beat his butt…That’s the only reason I signed on. He did get a couple of good shots on me with the lead pipe. He’s kinda clumsy like that, so after a while I think I called in for his stunt doubles, which were a lot better than him.”
Scott Terra, who plays Daredevil’s alter ego Matt Murdock as a young boy, admitted he was unfamiliar with the blind adventurer before getting the part. “I never heard of Daredevil before I made the movie,” he confessed. “I read a few of [the comic books]. They are actually hard to find now.” One guy who probably has them all at home was actor David Keith, who plays Matt’s father, boxer Jack “The Devil” Murdock. “I didn’t need to [research],” he proudly proclaimed. “I’ve read Daredevil my whole life. It’s a lot of fun.”
Others working the red carpet included co-star Jon Favreau and writer-director Mark Steven Johnson, Piper Perabo, Evan “Joe Millionaire” Marriott and his TV butler Paul Hogan, Rob Zombie and members of the rock bands Drowning Pool and The Calling. Actress Kelly Hu, who plays the villainous Lady Deathstrike in the upcoming X-Men sequel X2, demurred when asked who would win in a battle between her blade-fingered character and Garner’s sai-toting Elektra (“Oooh, I don’t know–that’s gonna be tough.”) but suggested one day a crossover between the two films, which are made by the same studio, might settle the issue. “We’ve gotta talk to Fox about that!”
Hu readily told us which muscle-bound superheroes she’s fantasized about hooking up with. “I really dug Batman. And Superman…and of course there was the Green Hornet…” Clearly Kelly has a jones for the leather, cape and spandex set–maybe it was a good thing J. Lo was hanging tight to Ben’s arm that night.
