Ben wants to make comedies – intentional ones, of course
It’s 10 a.m. in a swanky Beverly Hills hotel suite, and Ben Affleck is gobbling gumdrops.
“I love them,” he says. “I pull them off gingerbread houses all the time.”
“Stop eating them,” orders James Gandolfini, issuing a Tony Soprano-like command.
“I can’t! I can’t!” Affleck says. “They’re so addictive, I just know I’m going to be sick. I can literally feel the sugar burning inside my stomach.”
And speaking of sick, or perhaps twisted: While Affleck gobbles candy, Gandolfini is busy fashioning a noose out of some silver ribbon.
“Jimmy, how do you know how to tie a noose?” Affleck asks.
“Well, you know, I have some kinky habits,” Gandolfini says.
The pair are together to talk about their new movie, “Surviving Christmas,” a farcical comedy that’s a departure for both actors.
Affleck is bent on proving he can do comedy and not just be typecast as the action hero or romantic lead. In “Surviving Christmas,” he plays a rich man who rents a family for Christmas. Gandolfini is the father of that family.
“Initially, people were sort of resistant about me in a comedy,” Affleck says. “Most studios have it in their minds that if a comedy script comes in, it’ll go to one of six or seven guys, like Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy. I kind of had to jump through some hoops.”
Affleck says he has no desire to go back to the tough-guy persona he projected in Armageddon and Paycheck.
“I don’t want to hold a gun in a movie or blow anything up ever again,” Affleck proclaims.
“Don’t say that,” Gandolfini cautions, telling this reporter: “He takes that back.”
But Affleck is unswayed. “I’m bored of those other kinds of movies,” he says. “There’s some irony to the fact that I want to do comedies and all these actors who already do comedies keep asking ‘When am I going to get to do my big serious thing?’ “
Gandolfini and Affleck bounce off each other’s ideas and seemed to genuinely enjoy making the movie, which also stars Catherine O’Hara as Gandolfini’s wife and Christina Applegate as his daughter.
“Ben called me and said ‘Do this,’ ” Gandolfini says. “The original script was very good, and then they started to change things, and it got a little iffy. Then when we got together we kind of improvised and got it back to the original script.”
Affleck’s next role is in “Man About Town,” in which he plays a literary agent whose wife (Rebecca Romijn) cheats on him.
“It’s kind of about his life falling apart and his seeing if he can forgive her, sort of a reversal of the ‘female forgiveness of the male adulterer’ story,” he says.
Which leads us to questions about Affleck’s love life. What’s the latest with his romance with Jennifer? Garner, that is, not Lopez.
“Oh good,” he says. “I want to make sure which one you’re asking me about. But I’ll have to give you the obligatory ‘I’m not going to talk about it’ answer.’ “
The birthday bunch
Actress Marion Ross is 76. Singer Helen Reddy is 63. Guitarist Glen Tipton of Judas Priest is 56. Guitarist Matthias Jabs of Scorpions is 48. Actress Nancy Cartwright (“The Simpsons”) is 47. Drummer Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers is 42. Singer Speech (Arrested Development) is 36. Guitarist Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies is 34. Singer Jerome Jones of Immature is 23. Singer Ciara is 19.