I suppose it’s no surprise that Ben Affleck is a fan of method acting, as he frequently plays a thick-headed Bostonian lowlife. But the degree to which he is insisting the stars of his upcoming project Argo prepare for their roles might stimulate some shock in those not already jaded by the actor/writer-turned-director’s past disparagements to cinema.
The film depicts the events of a 1979 hostage situation and rescue of American diplomats in Tehran. Six escapees of the collapsed American embassy at the time found shelter in the Canadian embassy for just under three months, posing (under the direction of CIA operative Tony Mendez) as a film crew in Tehran to work on a project called “Argo.” As such, Affleck commands the six actors playing the hostages to spend two weeks living together in a safe house as a means of better understanding and emulating their characters’ struggles.
Affleck, of course, has afforded himself the luxury of a role that does not call for such preparation: the aforementioned Tony Mendez, who, incidentally, is also the hero responsible for the diplomats’ safe return home. After casting himself as the sole sympathetic male among criminals and cops alike in last year’s The Town, this is yet another of Affleck’s antics that I find to be no surprise.
Source: Vulture
