Lisa Canning: So tell me about this scene that you just did, that we just taped. What was that about?
Ben Affleck: What we just taped was right before the first performance of the play and everyone is preparing. So it's like all the various characters in the play walking in and out preparing and saying their lines to themselves and that is sort of it. There is not really any thrust to it, except there is all this buzz and excitement about the play that we are about to do, except that Shakespeare is kind of concerned, the shot ends on Joe, playing Shakespeare, looking a little constipated.
Lisa: Actually I talked to Joe a little bit about you and he said you've got your English accent down. I heard a little of it but how do you feel about it?
Ben: Joe is just being polite. That is what the British do (laughs). And then when you turn around and leave "it's awful his accent isn't it?" But these guys have been really nice to me. It's really a terrific cast and it's a lot of fun.
Lisa: Is it a little bit of a challenge though, doing an accent?
Ben: Yeah, it's a little bit of a challenge doing an accent. It's a little bit of a challenge doing Shakespeare. It's a little bit of a challenge doing a period movie. It's a sort of challenging overall. It's one of those things. That is one of the things that was so exciting to me about it. It is so different then anything I have ever done. At least in movies, and in film. This is a far cry from 'Armageddon.'
Lisa: I was going to say... you are in a dress and tights for crying out loud!
Ben: (laughs) A frock of some kind. It is very manly.
Lisa: (laughs) So you have a sword. I've noticed you were kind of waving the sword around.
Ben: I play the guy who is sort of like the Tom Cruse equivalent of Shakespeare's time. I am the great-
Lisa: The Tom Cruise equivalent of Shakespeare's time?
Ben: Yeah, because I am the big-I play a guy named Ned Allen who is the biggest star of the stage in that era. So he's the Tom Cruise. He's the biggest star the most well-known guy. Except that I am a little bit more pleased with myself, while Tom Cruise seems like a nice guy to me. The guy I play is more pleased with himself and his position at that time, so he is a little bombastic-- rougher on the edges. And Shakespeare essentially really doesn't want me to play Romeo, but he needs me in the play sort of like you need to have a star even though sometimes stars can be insufferable and difficult to deal with.
Lisa: You think?
Ben: So I've been told.
Lisa: (laughs) What did you think about this script?
Ben: I am looking through the pages wondering when I come back in. It's really funny, and it's really a great part. It's an amazing cast, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Wilkeson, all these great names. Simon Callow, the great Shakespearean orator who can make like one word into fifty syllables, he can say "majesty" and it has forty syllables.
Lisa: (laughs) I like that accent.
Ben: I'm learning how to stretch my words out more appropriate in the British formal way.
Lisa: You know we are in London. Have you had a change to check out Big Ben and all that?
Ben: Big Ben, Parliament, yeah, like Chevy Chase, I hit all the "European Vacation" spots, that is my only reference for Europe, that film 'European Vacation.' But yes, I went to Westminster Abby, Parliament, and I saw Big Ben and I was at Oxford last night, they asked me to come speak, which was really shocking to me, as I'm sure it will be to you folks back home. But that was really beautiful and a really terrific honor. And I've been cruising around, it's a really wonderful city, and today is actually the first day in the past six weeks that it hasn't rained. The people are nice.
Lisa: Tell me how life has changed since winning the Oscar? People running up to you here in London, getting your autograph?
Ben: Well actually it has changed much more in the United States then it has here. It was actually kind of nice to come here because it was much more relaxed. I shot this movie in Pittsburgh, it's called 'Dogma' it's really good, in December, and I wasn't used to that sort of level of people knowing who I was. It sort of made me uncomfortable to be honest with you, but here it has been much more relaxed, or much more at ease. I don't know if they know who I am but they have played it really cool.
Lisa: So you are in 'Armageddon.' You aren't wearing a dress in that one are you?
Ben: You know what? This isn't 'Pricilla Queen of the Desert,' this is considered manly wear. It's period appropriate clothing. It's not like we are a bunch of drag queens here.
Lisa: (laughing) I wasn't judging you-
Ben: Yes, ['Armageddon'] has a much more masculine look. Michael Bay who directed that movie is obsessed with masculinity. Basically that is his entire direction. "Just do it more manly! More cool!" (laughs) He is very energetic. But 'Armageddon' is coming out July 1st. It's a very manly, exciting, explosion film--a thrill-ride movie. I'm sure I'll be coming back to talk to you folks at the junket in Los Angeles.
Lisa: A hundred million-dollar movie!
Ben: At least, because that was my salary alone, so you know that they spent some money on the movie.
Lisa: You are so hot right now-a hundred million.
Ben: Yeah, would you keep that quiet though, I don't want the other guys--Mel Gibson is getting jealous. They'll want a hundred million too, then Arnold wants to be paid a hundred million too. He just doesn't have the draw that I have in Taiwan.
Lisa: Are you a big fan of Shakespeare?
Ben: Shakespeare is the kind of writer, where I don't know if one would necessarily consider himself a fan. I guess if you are wildly considered to be the greatest writer in English history, you have to sort of appreciate it. There are places I really like. There are parts that I don't like, places I don't understand. I'd like seeing some productions and not others. He writes some beautiful language and I think the challenge is to try to make it seem accessible to audiences. Which is why I really like this movie. We are putting on a Shakespeare play, but Shakespeare isn't what is mostly in the movie, it is basically a love story, and a comedy trying to get this play made. It's got stuff that everyone can relate to. In fact it is not dissimilar at all to trying to get a movie made. So there is actually very little real Shakespeare in it. Most of it is the backstage sort of goings on, who's sleeping with who, and who's robbing who and who's trying to dupe someone to get them to do something they want them to do. And it's a lot of energy and it's a really sweet love story. I am really excited and proud.
Lisa: I like the goatee.
Ben: It's actually fake. It comes right off after work. I'm doing this movie so I couldn't grow it right.
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