Ben Affleck is done worrying what other people think
LOS ANGELES — Ben Affleck will turn 50 this year. "Eight months and 14 days," he said on a December afternoon in Los Angeles, letting out a dry laugh. "But who's counting?"
It's not surprising that a movie star would approach such a milestone with a certain degree of self-reflection, if not dread. But after a tumultuous decade in his career and his personal life — marked by great highs, including his 2013 best picture win for "Argo," which he directed, and deep lows, including his divorce from actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he has three children, and his public struggles with alcoholism — Affleck says he is at peace these days.
"The common thread I've found from the people I know who've turned 50 who are the happiest is that they've stopped worrying so much about what other people think," he said. "I think that's the gift of that age. When you hit 30, you think, 'Now I've figured it out,' then you hit 40 and you're like, 'I had no idea.' Now, when I think about being in my 20s, I wonder, 'How was my brain distinguishable from a gorilla's at that age?'"
Feeling wrung out after his run as Batman in 2016's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and 2017's "Justice League," Affleck has focused in the last
