Ben Affleck, penny-pinching miser
By Spirit FingersThe days of pink diamond rings the size of my head and gold-plated toilet seats are far behind Ben Affleck, now that he has become fixated on achieving his directorial vision through frugal means. No sirree, there’ll be no Waterworld type budget-blowouts for this actor-director.
BEN AFFLECK was so determined to keep costs down on the set of his feature film directorial debut GONE BABY GONE, he refused to use extras in bar and street scenes. Instead, the canny actor/director gave Boston, Massachusetts locals the chance to become film stars for the day. He explains, “Basically, what we did was, wherever possible, we went down to locations - say we shot in a bar - and we basically said, `Whoever’s at your barstool, we’re gonna show up and make the movie, stay where you are. We’re gonna make the movie around you.’
At home the situation is pretty much the same. If he hadn’t won the three wheel stroller in a poker game, little Violet would still be trundling around in a supermarket trolley.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
That’s actually pretty cool. Gives the kid a much better chance to grow up without the usual entitlement complex a lot of celeb kids get.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
[…] Ben Affleck is a penny-pinching director. (Ayyyy!) […]
October 19th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Hee, hee. But, seriously, other than being very good-looking, this family actually seems halfway normal.