Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck’s career has been quite the roller coaster ride. Few actors have had such up and down careers. He has gone from indie cult star, to blockbuster action hero, to a virtual laughing stock (think Gigli), all the way to critically acclaimed actor and director. Along the way, his star studded relationships have made him tabloid fodder, and his love for poker have made him a regular of the celebrity poker circuit. Let’s take a closer look at Hollywood’s pretty boy underdog, and why he’s the biggest contradiction in town.

Affleck got his big break in the mid nineties acting in one of Kevin Smith’s cult comedy classics, Mallrats. That was the start of a long term professional relationship with Smith, appearing in all of his subsequent movies and staring in one of them (Chasing Amy.) Ben’s mainstream breakthrough was Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote along with childhood pal Matt Damon. After that he became a action superstar with his appearance in 1997′s Jerry Bruckheimer disaster film Armaggedon, alongside Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler and soon-to-be-famous comedic actor Owen Wilson. Affleck expanded his action-star credentials with starring roles in Pearl Harbor and Sum of All Fears, released in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

2003 was a turning point in Ben’s career, unfortunately a turn for the worst. That year he starred in two critically panned box office and critical flops in rapid succession, Gigli and Reindeer Games. All actors make poor choices from time to time, but these were especially egregious ones. Gigli is now regarded is one of the worst films of all time. Many wondered if he would ever bounce back.

Bounce back he did, in a big way. His heartbreaking performance as declining Superman actor George Reeves in the 2006 film Hollywoodland was extremely well received by critics. For his performance, Affleck won the Volpi Cup award for best actor at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Ben was back. 2007 was a watershed year in his career. His directorial debut, the wrenching Boston neo-noir film Gone Baby Gone, starring his brother Casey extremely well received, and rightly so. It was a pitch perfect drama, painting a bleak but colorful portrait of Boston’s seedy underbelly.

Since then, Affleck has gone on to star in four more feature films, Smokin Aces, State of Play, He’s Just Not That Into You and Extract. At 37, Ben seems to have no where to go but up. It will be exciting to see what happens next in the long, strange trip that is the career of Ben Affleck.