Ben Affleck has admitted that the intense media scrutiny surrounding his relationship with Jennifer Lopez was the perfect training for his role in Gone Girl.
The actor was engaged to JLo prior to marrying actress Jennifer Garner and said that the experience of being heavily profiled in the press gave him a good insight into the character of Nick in the Gillian Flynn novel.
He told the New York Times that he felt “cast in a soap opera where I had no control over the lines I was saying or the story line” and that his recurring thought was “This bears no resemblance to me, and I really wish they would write me a better part. Because I don’t want to be this guy”.
His sentiments were shared by director David Fincher, who said that Affleck's struggles in his career had made him perfect for the role.
“We had to have somebody who understood the lose-lose situation, and somebody who knew what that meant, and wasn’t angry about it. He actually has great wit about it. As it relates to this circumstance, he can see the humour in it. Even when he’s the punch line.”
