George Clooney Says Ben Affleck Has ‘Been Through the Wringer,’ Deserves Another Oscar
George Clooney only has “Good Will” for Ben Affleck.
Clooney, who directed Affleck in Amazon Prime Video‘s “The Tender Bar,” called the film a “real showcase” for his pal.
“You know, Ben’s been through the ringer,” Clooney said to Deadline. “He’s been as high as you could get. He stood on the stage and won a couple of Oscars. He knows what it’s like to be at the top of the game, and he also has had some rough patches.”
Clooney continued, “Some of them, as he has said many times, self-inflicted, but he’s a fighter, and he’s been out there, and he showed up on this one in such a big way and in such a gracious way, and he’s been doing it for a bit, and it’s fun to see the reactions towards him, and it’d be lovely if the same sort of attention was carried on [to the Oscars]. I think he would deserve it.”
Affleck recently has been reflecting on his past film experiences, calling “Armageddon” an “absurd” movie and admitting that box office bomb “Gigli” led him to “really question things” about his career.
“The Tender Bar” is based on Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist J.R. Moehringer’s memoir. IndieWire’s review described the film as a “pleasantly anecdotal amble down memory lane” with a “mellow mood.”
“I’d like to believe — and I still believe — that there’s a way that grownup films can still survive, and survive in movie theaters. But in general, in the world’s understanding the business end of this, that may very well mean that the negotiation is a short window in the theatrical world and then onto the streaming, so that a lot more people see it,” Clooney added about “The Tender Bar” being released on Amazon Prime Video.
“Streamers have sort of taken over that. And so, the good news is there’s still a way to get these kind of films made, and the other part of the good news is that Amazon and Netflix, who we’ve also worked with, are also more than willing to have them be released in theaters, so that you can co-exist. I think that’s a pretty exciting prospect because films like mine, films like ‘The Tender Bar’ aren’t going to open on 3,000 screens. Not designed to do that.”
