Ben Affleck: Blake Lively Made Me Feel Old

Oscar winner reveals how surprised he was when the erstwhile Gossip Girl didn't know who "Matt and Ben" were when they worked on The Town together

By Josh Grossberg Sep 14, 2012 5:03 PMTags

Ben Affleck, you're no spring chicken anymore.

Gracing the cover of Details' October issue, the acclaimed actor-director opened up about how Blake Lively, his costar in The Town, made him realize he's not the 25-year-old wunderkind anymore who won an Oscar with Matt Damon for cowriting Good Will Hunting.

While filming the crime drama three years ago in Boston, Affleck took the newly minted Mrs. Ryan Reynolds on a tour of the city and suddenly realized she didn't even know his famous connection with his best friend and old screenwriting partner, with whom he grew up in Beantown before the two took Hollywood by storm.

"When I was doing The Town, I'd tour the actors around Boston. I was with Blake, and I saw Matt's childhood home," Affleck recounted to the magazine. And I said, 'Oh yeah, that's where Matt grew up.' And she said, 'Who?' And I said, 'Matt Damon." And she said, 'Oh my God! You know Jason Bourne?!'"

Then it hit him.

"She really didn't know. And I thought, 'There it is. The first age of people who are adults who missed the whole Matt-and-Ben propaganda campaign!" he added. "Mostly, it just made me feel old."

Well, Ben, you are over the hill now, having just turned 40 last month!

To be fair, the 25-year-old Lively was only 11 back in 1998 when Good Will Hunting came out and made Affleck and Damon household names, so the Gossip Girl star can be forgiven for not knowing about the hoopla over them at the time. (We guess she didn't see Mindy Kaling's spoof of Affleck in the latter's 2003 off-Broadway smash Matt & Ben, either).

In the article, aside from discussing his latest acting and directing project, the period political thriller Argo, Affleck also talked about the challenge of balancing his devotion to his big-screen career with being a good dad to his three kids with actress-wife Jennifer Garner.

"Anytime you think, 'I'm wasting my time here,' the first thought you have is 'I could go home and be with my kids,'" noted the actor. "Now, you may go home and be with your kids and very quickly start thinking, 'I wonder what's on the work front?' Because running around after three kids is very trying. Now everything has to compete with being my family."

Added Affleck, "I don't want to be a stay-at-home dad. Work is very important to me. I like to work. So does my wife. But I need my work to mean something to me in order for me to not be home with them."

Given the rave reviews Argo has been earning in advance of its Oct. 12 release, it sounds like he's got a lot of juggling to do.