Ben Affleck Talks More About How His Tabloid Past Helped His 'Gone Girl' Present

Turns out, all that tabloid scrutiny of Ben Affleck when he was one half of the celebrity couple “Bennifer” had an upside: It unwittingly helped him prepare for his role in the upcoming David Fincher thriller, Gone Girl.

In a new New York Times interview about the movie, out Oct. 3, he returns to the theme of being thrust into the unflattering glare of the media spotlight. Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a man who’s suspected of murdering his missing wife (Rosamund Pike) and is hounded by the press as result. “There’s nothing really about this guy or character that I feel connected to personally,” the actor told the Times. “Except that I have definitely felt as though I was looking at a version of my life that I didn’t recognize through the prism of the media.”

The Oscar winner added that the years he dated Jennifer Lopez — 2002 through 2004 — had him “cast in a soap opera where I had no control over the lines I was saying or the story line.” He recalled at the time, “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.”

Lopez and Affleck in 2003

This isn’t the first time the movie star has talked about his art somewhat imitating his life. “It wasn’t something I had to do a lot of research for,” Affleck told Entertainment Weekly in an earlier interview about his Gone Girl role. “I knew what it was like to have the tabloid world paying attention to me and ascribing negative motivations to whatever I might be engaging in.”

Affleck’s tabloid days have long since past — he’s been married to actress Jennifer Garner since 2005 and the couple have three children. But his role as a hunted man will surely cause some chatter. “I actually think this is the perfect date movie,” he told Empire magazine last month. “It’s the kind of movie that a husband and wife could talk about afterwards. I think a man and a woman would have different takes on what happens.”

Photo credit: AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Merrick Morton