Affleck to Paparazzi: Youse Guys Suck

Posted Aug 31st 2006 4:20PM by TMZ Staff

Click to return to TMZ.comBen Affleck is getting sick of all the media focus put on his personal life and says it's hurting his career. While promoting his new film "Hollywoodland" at the Venice Film Festival, Affleck had a few words targeted at the celebrity-obesssed culture.

"I think more and more people pay attention to actor's private lives ... it makes it difficult to suspend disbelief when you are going to watch their movie because really what you are thinking about is whatever you have read about them in a magazine rather than the performance they are giving and it makes the actors job harder."

Affleck even got a bit poetic at the presser, telling reporters "the movies become incidental pit stops and commercial breaks in the soap opera of their life."

So that must be why "Daredevil" and "Gigli" were so poorly received -- the audience focused too much on Affleck's life with J. Lo and not his brilliant on-screen performances. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Filed under: Movies

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(Page 21 of 21)Previous 15 Comments

301. Ben, I sympathize with the intrusions into your private life, but a good actor gives such a performance, that the viewer can only concentrate on the part he's playing.

Posted at 8:24PM on Sep 9th 2006 by Lucia Giuttari

302. Why, just because someone is an actor, should their private lives be made public? I am sure no one wants to be hounded all the time. What gives the public a right to their PRIVATE lives? No matter how much money they make or if they know it comes with the territory. It shouldn't come with the territory. Our society knows no limits today. We have no morals or values and that is sad! He has the right to promote a public event, such as a movie, but that is a part of his job description. But once the press junket is over, the press and paparazzi should leave them alone.

Posted at 9:15PM on Sep 13th 2006 by Kam

303. Hey Tiffany, you make some good points but I have to call you out on one. Matt Damon wasn't all over the "bloids" because he's about 1/64th as attractive as Ben Affleck and didn't marry a TV star. I agree that the paps (uh, ironic posting this on TMZ, I know) get way overzealous but come on, the man worked years to get himself into the spotlight and now it's too much? While that may be true, he could learn to keep his mouth shut and not give them fodder like we're all commenting on today.

Posted at 5:23PM on Sep 19th 2006 by Jonboysf

304. I think he is hot, I wonder if him and Garner will divorce?

Posted at 2:06PM on Dec 5th 2006 by Lara

305. I'm not a Ben Affleck fan, but there's no question - he's right. The press does suck. They distort and withhold stories of real importance, and use celebrities - free of charge - to create and sustain their own business. Movies have become more and more a means of promoting entertainment and even "real news" magazines. That doesn't mean those magazines are responsible for movie flops like Gigli - and Affleck doesn't say that they are - but they do keep actors down once they've been down.

The press and paparazzi have no grounds to be self-righteous: they do reduce everything to its lowest level, be in entertainment or politics. Rather than being informative about truly newsworthy stories, they suck the life out of celebrities and, it would seem, the intelligence out of the viewing public. They "dumb down": their stories, and the public as well. Paparazzi and celebrity reporters are by and large people who themselves seem to have nothing in particular to offer, ready to make a living out of exposing the private lives of others. The "public interest" has been distorted to nothing more than "public curiosity".

Posted at 12:42PM on Mar 18th 2007 by d1m1nu

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