Year 2005. Ben Affleck is not exactly experiencing his best professional moment after a setback whose shock waves are still felt: A girl in a swimsuit. Spielberg, for his part, is also not very happy after seeing how much of the ramblings of Tom Cruise on the Oprah show have distracted from what’s really important at that time: the promotion of war of the worldsthe new blockbuster that brought them together again after the success of Minority report.
In this climate where tensions could be cut with a knife, the actor and filmmaker Mike Binder had started to talk about a new feature film project. A film about a talent seeker in the midst of an existential crisis for which he had thought of Affleck, whom he quickly recruited after showing him his previous film, beyond hatred.
After having sent off his star, Binder only had to conclude negotiations with the studio under whose aegis the idea was developed, which was none other than Dream Workscreated by the filmmaker behind classics like Shark And Jurassic Park. While first impressions during the meeting pointed to a successful deal, everything dissipated when Binder revealed who his protagonist would be, two words that gave way to an uncomfortable silence.
During a relaxed conversation on the podcast A bad movieBinder recounted the meeting with Spielberg, who was horrified at the idea of calling on the actor to Chasing Amy in the film, immediately offering a series of alternatives to avoid having it. It’s true that Affleck’s shine had faded after he burst onto the scene in the late ’90s and his public image was overshadowed by his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, which captured tabloids around the world, but the reasons lay in another direction.
Strictly personal
Far from what it might seem, It was not a financial consideration. the cause of Hollywood’s King Midas’ refusal, but something much more prosaic, a purely personal question that dated back to the previous decade, and which involved his own family. To get into the situation, let’s just remember that the actor was a partner between 1997 and 2000 Gwyneth Paltrowgoddaughter of Spielberg, who she had an affair with him after his breakup with Brad Pitt.
The two men had managed to win an Oscar: he for best screenplay for The hunt for indomitable will and her for best leading actress for Shakespeare in Love– and they had an enviable professional moment. So to rest a little from so much filming, during the summer vacation, They went to Spain in order to enjoy a few days with their respective families, including Spielberg and his family.
The incident occurred when one of the filmmaker’s sons took Affleck by surprise and pushed him into the pool while he was still clothed. The actor came away with a bad-tempered attitude and decided to take revenge by also throwing the little boy into the water, who ended up crying. “What does this have to do with casting a movie in 2005?”asked an incredulous Binder of Spielberg, who concluded unequivocally: “I just don’t like working with him.”
Far from stopping there, the story reached new heights when Binder decided to let Affleck go and contacted him personally, suspecting there was something wrong behind his firing. “Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his son into the water? That’s why I’m not in the film,” said the actor bluntly. A little saddened by what happened, the director attempted a second attack with the person responsible for the film. AND The Extraterrestrialwho, faced with his insistence, ended up giving in.
A year later, the film Diary of an Aggressive Executive It was released to little critical and public acclaim, with Affleck as the protagonist, although, after all, without any trace of Dreamworks and Spielberg in the production.
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