"Ben Affleck"

25:04I just thought, no, it's the greatest ever. Because Matt was constantly saying yes and then be like, hey man, can you call them and tell them I'm sick? Right. And that's bullshit. It's amazing. I've told minimum 50 people that piece of advice as if I came up with it my own. And they have people love it and have latched onto it. Right, JB? We've talked about it all the time. I live it. I did it today. I got asked to do something like three months from now that sounds kind of interesting. That would be kind of fun. But then I thought, well, actually, if it was on the calendar for tomorrow, would I wish that it was canceled?

25:34If the answer is yes, pass. Pass. I love that. You know, the thing about that that I can't completely co-sign, like my dirty little secret is, I might pass on everything. Right. Because I almost never want to get off the calendar. Did you think about this show today, about passing on this show? I mean, I was a half hour late, wasn't I? Yeah. They had to talk you out of it. So for the guy who likes to do nothing except sit on his couch every day like I do, I find it interesting that you're actually able to get up and work as hard as I think anybody could possibly work when it comes to directing.

26:13Like that's a really, really all-encompassing job. So are you like me where it's like either all or nothing? I'm either working full or out. I think you and I have that in common, yes. And I think that part of it is, it's a little bit like, it's more sort of social things. Like I feel actually kind of shy. I don't really want to go say hi to people. It feels a little bit like, oh, I'm going to, you know, something's going to happen. It's going to make me feel awkward. But I love directing movies. And that movie in particular was the best experience I've had. Directing is hard and terrifying. And at first I thought, like, okay, even if I don't know anything about this, I know that I can at least work harder than everybody else.

26:56And so I thought, well, you put in 20 hours a day and that's what you do. And it made it excruciating and I got migraines. But, like, to the extent that the movies, you know, I was happy with, I thought, well, it must be because I work 20 hours a day and did nothing else and thought of nothing else. And eventually realized that you don't quite have to do it that way. And that actually, this movie, which is the favorite movie I ever made, I love this movie. It benefits entirely from the writing and acting of Jason and Matt and Chris and Viola and Christina and Matt Mayer. But it was so much fucking fun every day.

27:34Well, it's your fault. I mean, well, we don't have to do a whole thing on the kind of set you run and your talent and everything. But it was... No, no, no. We can actually... I think we have time to do that. Actually, I don't have time to do that. Do we have... We have 24. It was actually incredibly easy. Guys, we shot this down the street. We shot it in a business, in an office building that we're supposed to be in an office building. So they basically just flipped the lights on. Now, that's to take nothing away from Bob Richardson, who is like the best DP in the history of movies. But it was very fast.

28:09I think after, wasn't it after like seven days, we were already three days ahead? Yeah. Something like that? I wanted to go quickly, and then you and Matt showed up. Like, having not directed Matt, I didn't appreciate it. When you're a director, right, you have your plans, you're worrying about all these other things. Yes, you're worrying about the performances, but I thought, okay, well, I won't have to worry about the performances, and I'll just worry about all the other sort of bullshit I'm doing that I think is relevant when really the actors are the only thing the audience is paying attention to.

28:35And, like, you know, camera moves and that kind of thing. And Jason and Matt are such pros that, I mean, it was like a dance to watch these two guys together. They've done it so much and so well so that as soon as you start to feel the dolly is laid, it's not going to be, all of a sudden Jason's looking in his pocket for something that might be behind him. And all of a sudden he makes maybe a little more mournful choice on that line delivery because it's going to give him an extra half step to the turn to where he knows the steadicam's going to come. The two of the guys, I started feeling like you're making it for me.

29:09Stop doing this. It's so fun. I love that. It really was amazing to see. In fact, it got to the point where because Bob's crew and everyone was so good, they started anticipating and trying to do it. And then the guys who were really good and women who were doing it were like, it started to just speed up. And finally I was like, Matt, Jason, don't do their job for them. You don't have to do everybody's job. Yes, I know you're great at it. But just worry about the scene. Because I think they kind of started having fun with it. Because they had oners and you'd have to see this and that. and Jason would know, like, you're probably going to want that magenta in the background.

29:43And I thought you'd like the window. And I was like, you sons of it. Yeah, I did want the window. I didn't think I was that transparent. Did you, can you remember having any sort of significant creative negotiation with Matt, either in the writing process or in the directing process, like giving him a note that he didn't want to take or writing a scene that he thought was kind of fine already? Because didn't you have the writing process, like Good Will Hunting and back in college, where they won an Oscar. You would talk about it or improv it and record it? We recorded it, yeah, on what were audio cassettes at the time.

30:19Kids, those were small, brown tape cassettes. Really? Put in devices. Wait, really? You guys talked out the script? Yeah, because we never thought of ourselves as formal writers. We had a great drama teacher in high school who taught us kind of sort of writing, directing, acting, and didn't sort of put them in distinct silos. So we would actually end up making plays, which we later, I later realized we would act, write, direct them in effect, but we just thought we would improvise them and kind of distill them down and find a story. Such a great idea. So that's just how we know how to do it. This person did you such a favor by doing that, by sort of putting it all together, right?

30:54There's no question without Jerry Speck and Matt or I or my brother or Matt Mayer or Max Kassela or Anika Larson or all the people that came out of the program who are working and who are terrific would, I think, be working because he taught us that and he taught us to not take ourselves seriously, respect other people, but take the work that we were doing incredibly seriously. And that was like that kind of, and there's that great time of life when you have the older person who's the mentor who you look up to who's doing the thing you want to do who says, this is meaningful, but you really have to work hard at it.

31:30And so we did. Ben, so that was a teacher that you guys had at your public high school? High school, yeah. I mean, our public high school just lucked out and got this guy who's a genius. That's so amazing. And he was amazing for kids that didn't even end up wanting to be in theater. And he was, I could do a whole thing on him. But the truth is, I think that's part of why I learned to be collaborative is that Matt and I never fought or argued about stuff. It was always that we, and we never got our feelings hurt because most of the ideas are bad. So I'll have a bad idea, he'll have a bad idea. I'll have a bad idea, he'll have a bad idea.

32:04I'll have an idea with that's a little bit maybe better. And then Matt, that kind of keys something in Matt that's mediocre. You know what I mean? So we know we're building from there and it's never about, and then it just becomes about like finding the best thing until both of us feel like it can't be improved. And we kind of go like, and if there is a kind of difference of opinion, it always ends up coming down to who cares more. I go, Matt, I don't know. I really think this is about the, and he's like, man, that, and I go, all right. If you don't want to do it more than I want to do it, then we're not going to do it.

32:35You know? Or if I want to do it more than you don't want to do it, we're going to do it. That's just common. Amanda and I try to live by that. There she is. Oh, look, it's Jennifer. So good. Special guest star. There she is. Hi. She can't hear us. Hi. Hi, Jen. Hi. Hi, guys. You were just doing very well. We were talking about you in very favorable terms, and so was your husband. Oh, thank you. I was singing some of your songs back to you. Please sing. Please sing. We're waiting for the night. Oh! Oh, my love. It's waiting for tonight. Waiting for tonight.

33:11Oh, that's the mic drop right there. But thank you. She crushed it. But thank you. That's when we're lucky that we're at. That is brilliant. Thank you for saying hi. Yes, of course. Bye, Jennifer. Looking forward to doing this with you guys. Oh, good. I love you. There's the part that will make the show. By the way, we just bypassed. Jason, I didn't know this term, creative negotiation. Yeah. Way to take the art out of it, man. You fucking find a way every fucking time. Just business, my friend. No, no, you have to negotiate. Canal Street, how much for the batteries? Hey, Picasso, how much paint did you use?

33:49How many cubic liters of paint did you use? That's the beautiful thing. Just take the fucking art out of it, baby, and fuck you. You see, Picasso never had to negotiate with anybody because it's just a single thing. What we're doing is like team stuff, right? That's true. So you've got to always negotiate. There is a lot of negotiations. I mean, the lucky thing is when you don't have to negotiate. When you go like, you know, you do something, you write it, you give it to him, and then Jason sits down and reads the scene. And like, he made me cry. And then you feel like a jerk because you feel like that guy who just like, was it Marty Short or whatever who used to go?

34:22And then, you know, you just want to give one of like those. What's the name of that character? Jiminy Glick? Jiminy Glick. Jiminy Glick. I just watched him last night. I have a question, Mr. Affleck.

34:37So to wrap up the Matt stuff, we'll leave him out of the rest of the interview. But the, because we've had enough of Matt, right? I mean, Will, with you, with your whirtle, quirtle, and squirtle every morning. I want to get in on that. And Matt was like, you're not ready. I was like, we're not ready. Jason dropped out. He couldn't take the heat. No, it's not the heat. It's Will likes to tell you how much better his score could have been had he done X, Y, or Z. Anyway, that's really... Wait, wait, I wanted to close the map part of it. Yes, Joe. Tell for the... And you could... I know I would love to do a full podcast with you about artist equity and all the studio economics that you're in.

35:14They told me you didn't even want to do this one. We put our audience to sleep. So for those that have narcolepsy, do the quick version of generally what the concept is, what you guys are doing versus what exists and why that makes sense for you guys doing this since you're buddies and you want to kind of spread that kind of buddy feeling in the process. It's a tough elevator pitch, and I over-talk and go on too long, so there's a bad combo. Sean will cut you off. Don't worry. Basically what it is is like over the years, as I'm sure you have, we start to kind of know, like, there's money that gets spent on things that don't end up making the movie any better.

35:52And the more money that you spend on what you do, the more obligation you have, the sort of more risk there is and the less likely people are to do things that, you know, you consider more interesting and they want to be more conventional. Right. And then I looked around and I just, as a director, started to really understand and value the people on the crew who made such a significant difference to the quality of what you're doing, both in terms of speed and in terms of the environment and the way in which you're able to perform. I'm a big believer that the performance really ultimately is what draws people in and the performance and the writing.

36:30And so we came up with this idea, never thinking anyone would ever actually fund us, to do a movie studio that was predicated on two things. Basically, allowing the crew and the artist being the writer. And I consider the crew the artist, which is the whole group, actors, directors, writers, so on. Yeah. As well as cinematographers, sound mixers, everybody who collectively create the value in what we're doing to benefit from the upside of it in a really meaningful, significant way, but also to be responsible for it. In other words, listen, if it goes over, you're going to get less. If it comes in under, you're going to do better.

37:08But all of us have to make it good. Otherwise, we're not going to get anything. Yeah. And sort of treat people like grownups. Believe they can be accountable and also believe that, you know, when because incentives have not historically been aligned. between the people financing movies traditionally and the people making them always. And so without going into too great a detail, the idea was like, and let's separate this out from like, what is the value of a movie? Well, usually they'll use comps. Like, well, what's the budget? And what did you make on your last movie? And especially now, because there's no back end and no gross, that's sort of it, right?

37:44Right. Well, I've always felt that was akin to going into the Apple store and saying, I'll tell you how much I give you for the iPhone when you tell me how much you paid the guy that put it together. But that's, you know, you don't, that's not how it works, right? So why does it have to work in the other way? So by being agnostic as a financier and producer, this studio, we had to then, you know, hire all the business affairs and legal and physical production and so on so that we could be an entity significant enough to take on the entire creative responsibility of developing, producing, shooting, and delivering the movie.

38:18and in exchange we got to say, look, this is what it's going to cost. It won't cost a dime more than that. If it goes over, we pay for it. But you have to sort of, we're going to be the ones who take on the burden, the role of saying we're going to deliver something good. If it's terrible, it's our fault. But you're going to sort of put your trust in us to be able to do this. I'm sure whatever partners that we work with, they're excellent, brilliant people distributing and marketing movies. We don't do that. We don't want to do very many movies, but we want to just really make good movies with people we like.

38:50I love that. And that's it. And we think people should be paid more for what they – So you're basically taking on the financial risk by funding the production effectively. And then you're saying we don't need – you don't get the leverage financier by giving us the money to make it, assuming that we don't have it to make it. We actually do. We're going to spend the money to make it. And we're basically coming to you and saying we'd like to sell you this product. We're going to take care of the wholesale part. Here's the retail price. Who wants to buy it? Exactly. Yeah? Exactly. It makes a lot of sense.

39:21That's what he just said. He just said. I'm trying to see if my brain heard it right. We'll be right back.

39:31And back to the show. So now, but then once you have finished the completion of a film, you now have to enter into a whole other thing because you're going out there to distributors. Yeah, so are you working with all different distributors, all different shapes and sizes? Business is like there's all sorts. It's changing a lot. You have streamers. You have, you know, the companies are theatrical and streaming. And so and that's nobody's quite figured that out yet. My feeling is people are watching things and interested in them. And that's going to be ongoing. How they figure out the economics of where they place value on it.

40:02You know, there if we keep our focus to a few things and make them make sure try to make them really good. And also, I really felt like, you know, interesting original dramas, comedies, sort of ideas were starting to fall away from the theatrical world. Yes. It was kind of like, nah, that's not in movie theaters. And so with this movie, and this movie's themes are kind of congruent with the ideas and the philosophy of this business. Like, what are the people worth and how should they be compensated? And isn't this, the story itself, I think is interesting to me. And I want people to go see movies like this.

40:34Yeah, I watch watching your trailer. I thought that very thing the first time I saw it. I thought nobody gets to make movies like this anymore because we've lived in a in a world where and everybody has benefited and participated to a certain degree in these sort of whatever you call them, these temples or these these. Including me. Yeah, no, that's what I mean. Everybody, all of us have benefited in certain ways. However, what happened was the result of that is is that these other kinds of movies that you're talking about. Without special effects. Without special effects and that are story-driven and that are character-driven.

41:04Well, your hair, but besides that. Yeah. Those things don't really, those kind of movies don't really exist as much anymore. Not in the theaters. And this one's going to 3 ,000 screens, right? Well, part of the problem is fucking Ozark. Yeah. Because it used to be that, you know, to put out a movie, you were competing, you know, like Law and Order or whatever, Magnum. You know what I mean? You had an 11-inch black and white and you could watch Simon and Simon or you could go see Murder at 1600. Oh, my God. Now you've got Succession and Ozark and really good fucking stuff where people at home go, you know what?

41:37I can pause. I can watch tomorrow. That's made it very difficult. But it looks like they're approaching a good combo where you're getting a nice window of time in the brick and mortar theaters. You can see it on a big screen if you want. Or you can wait, what is it? I think it's now basically six weeks before it'll be at your home as opposed to the old method was like three months. Yeah, I'm really grateful to Amazon. is the first time they're really going for the, we're going to do a theatrical, traditional, you know, 3 ,500 screens out in the theaters. Go see it. You can't, like, wait to see it for free.

42:08Like, not sort of upstaging it with a very impending free version at home. This is Amazon, right? Amazon, yeah. And they really are taking a flyer on this. And I really, I mean, I hope it works, honestly, obviously for the movie, but also so that we can do it again. And the reason why, going back to that model, the one thing that we do ask is that, like, Like, the Hollywood model is kind of like I get paid in failure, right? Right. Like, I still have the money. I mean, I spent it. But, like, I made money on Gigli. I didn't have to give it back. Right. You know what I mean? Like, everyone else went broke and I got a car, you know?

42:42So this is like, we're not going to get paid here. We're just going to spend what it costs to make the movie itself. And we're all going to show up and invest our time and energy. And if it works, and if it's successful, and if it's financially successful, you'll get paid whether you're the cinematographer whether you're the writer the director much more otherwise than you would have but the relationship between how you're compensated and how much it connects to audiences is really direct versus just like hey man you know I don't get out of bed for less than whatever and that's what I kind of you know that and such a nice thing to not have that vibe you know where the people who are doing it just want to be there.

43:19And I think this film's got a real good chance of of hitting that sort of zeitgeist thing only because, well, for two reasons. Number one, it's a story we all think we know, but we don't. The whole story about how and why Nike got into business with Michael Jordan when Michael Jordan entered the NBA and when this whole start of this sneaker, this whole Air Jordan thing, like it's an incredible American business story that no one really knows how it went together. And this movie explained it. And you're releasing it during March Madness, which I think is genius. First of all, I hear it's great from a few different people who've seen it.

43:55Two of them are in the movie, but they say it's great. Believe them. You can come by the house and watch it any time, by the way. I told Jason two or three times, please ask him to come. He did not. I think he broke up to bring up that part of the phone call. I'm desperate to see it, and I think Bradley saw it. Anyway, whatever it is, I'm desperate to see it. I think it sounds amazing. Bradley won't let me see his movie until it's mixed. It's really good. That movie's great. That movie's great. I read the script, and I remember saying to him, like, this is the movie. You're talking about Maestro.

44:29Dude, Maestro. Brilliant, yeah. Incredible. And the test, it's amazing. It looks amazing. It's fucking amazing. Talk about movies that nobody makes. It's the best script I've ever read. It's really, really good. But I was going to say, for your movie, what's great is, because it is, like as Jason says, it does tell the story, and it's so great. And people like Jason, this is where they learn stuff is from the movies, because they've never read a book before. They have no life experience. Right, they have no life experience. So, but truly, everybody says, and even Jason says this, which you never say, you weren't talking about yourself, about how much you love the movie.

45:00I can say that. He legitimately loves it. So it's, I'm very excited to see it. Now, let's talk about Batman. Let's talk about the real thing that everyone said. Can I jump in before we go? Let's get down to business. No, because the only time we really hung out was when we did that thing with Kimmel about Batman, and then I stuck my head in as Lego Batman, and you guys all laughed at me. I thought it was funny. We do have two Batmans on the podcast, Sean. I know, that's kind of cool. It's very cool. One real and one, yeah, cartoon. But I saw the trailer for The Flash and everybody was like freaking out when you came on the screen.

45:31You know what? That movie's good. I hear it's amazing. It looks good. It's really good. I hear that movie's fucking rude. They made it good. I love that. And it's my best shit I've done. I finally figured out how to play the guy. No, really? I got it. For real? I was like, hold on. I quit. I know I quit. And I know I came back to it. But I got it now. It's like, you know, you do the audition and you're on your way home and you're like, oh, no. Wait, what was the moment? Why did the penny drop? What happened? I mean, I don't want to give a spoiler, but it was a scene where I got, I get caught, I get saved by Wonder Woman.

46:04Yeah. During a conflagration with some bad guys. Yeah. And she saves me by, I mean, I'm sure I'm like the spoiler, you know, DC assassins. She saves you some way. She saves you with the lasso of truth. And so what happens is that Batman divulges, you know, some of his real feelings about his life and his work. And it helps you see the character, and now you want another chance to play it. And I was like, wait a minute, I got it. Am I still, wait, can I, guys? Are we still rolling? Can we write another story? It's a story of my fucking life. By the way, Ben, one time I remember years ago, and I asked him about it, I remember Alec Baldwin saying in an interview that he was driving home from Knott's Landing when he was on Knott's Landing.

46:52And on a Friday night and just going like, oh, fuck, that's how you do the scene. And he's like, from that moment on, he made a deal with himself that he would never leave it, that he would always figure out the scene while he was there. And it always stuck with me, especially because it was Knott's Landing. It's so funny. Alec told me a similar story, but totally different. Is that true? Yeah, he loves this metaphor. He's like, you know why I'm a good actor, but not a great actor. And I was like, no, Alec, I don't want to answer that. It was because I was Blink's Kowalski on Broadway. And I, uh, it was the door.

47:24He was supposed to leave the screen door, and I guess in some, and the screen door wouldn't open, and he was exiting. It wouldn't open. I shook it once, and I shook it twice, and it wouldn't open. And so I stepped around it. And right then, right then I realized, what would Brando do? He would have kicked it down. He would have kicked it down. And I was like, so, oh, kick it down. but he's very focused on that like moment after thing dude that's hilarious i want to ask you about you've won two academy awards good goodwill hunting and argo thank you i was wondering if we were going to get to the jason bateman your publicist is like all over me about that i was like okay got it uh texting texting yeah no but i want to talk to you about argo because you wrote me one of the funniest emails which i want to read right now we can cut it if you want but it's really funny.

48:14Anyway, Victor Garber, who's a friend of ours, right? He was staying in my guest house here while you were filming Argo with three houses down. It's funny, he said you were in his guest house, but go ahead. What's that? He said you were in his guest house, but he was just in his guest house. Yeah, sure, whatever, we swap. We share, like you share a bank account, we share a guest house. I want to still share a bank account with Matt. All of a sudden the deal's over after Bourne. But you shot Argo three houses down for me, and I would walk over in my pajamas and sit down and watch you direct, and it was super, super fun and then um then you won the oscar and i was there uh at the oscars and i wrote an email to you and i said i'm so proud i'm so thrilled for you i still i'll then all the other sentences said question marks i said i still haven't seen it and i probably won't get to it i'll probably have to netflix it and someone will have to read the subtitles to me but i'm sure i'll love it like everyone in iran says they do and then i said i love your speech blah blah and you wrote back i I saw your little sweet face when I was standing up there accepting my Oscar.

49:12In the middle of the greatest triumph of my professional life, I thought, I have got to tell Sean to go tanning.

49:23I fucking, so when I was doing all this research for you today, like all this stuff, I found that old, I was like, I'm going to look at old emails. I laughed out loud. And then you wrote another one. Haven't taken me up on it. Still pasty. No, not at all. I'm translucent so good oh Benjamin this has been amazing way too much of your time is it over they told me it's two hours so only an hour for me it's just two hours you don't usually do it two hours it just feels like we usually go three right we usually go three I am a big fan I gotta tell you guys I love the Marc Maron show you are wonderful oh I'm sorry wrong show oh shit oh shit oh shit no the truth is you guys are you guys are you do a great job you manage to be very interesting to listen to and yet very little of substance is ever said.

50:09We distract you with all the constant noise. That's all it is. And yet it feels like kind of wonderful. I enjoy it. It's an honor and a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you for having me. Well, likewise. Honest to God, you are fucking amazing in the movie. From the first time I met you on the day of Smoking Aces when I walked into that scene and you did the monologue about congenital alcoholism and herpes and a small penis, I have never, you cannot, if you go back and watch that movie, there is not a shot of me where I'm not lying. That's not from the movie. That's not from the movie, dude. He was just telling somebody.

50:36We were just hanging out then, remember? They put it in the movie. I was like, this guy is a genius. A genius. And I have never forgotten it. Joe Carnahan's fault. He wrote a great scene and directed a great movie. No, no, your fault. Genius. Love Joe. Great in that. Great in X-Tract. I have loved it. We had fun on X-Tract. I think you're a genius. Yeah, you are a genius. I do. I think all that you... My mother thinks that word's overused. Yeah, it is. She's probably right. Because she hears it a lot about her sons. But we're really happy. I will say this. I'm so happy that you're directing movies and you're making movies like this and that you just continue to do fucking great stuff.

51:19Yeah, I can't wait to see it. I love it. This is all I want to do. You do want to direct more than act, right? You love it. You're so good at it. I started really loving acting finally for real when I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm just going to direct movies. I'm done with this. I don't care. I just like directing. And then I was like, well, I'm already here. Do them both, right? Act in the movies you direct. And then I just let go. And I remember Sidney Pollack once saying, he was a director and an actor, and we did a movie called Changing Lanes 20-some years ago. And he said to me, you know why I'm a good actor?

51:54I was like, no, Sidney, you're right. Because I don't give a shit. And I was like, I didn't understand at the time, but I know what he's getting at now, which is that so much of it just has to do with letting go and being relaxed and trying things and not sweating what people are going to think. And, you know, trying the take that at the time Jason and Matt make fun of you for, but later on works in the movie. We know what we're talking about. Wait, really? Wait, which one was that? It was the take where I really wanted to play my part and I interrupted Matt and made him wait a second. And you were like, maybe too big.

52:28Maybe that's too big. I said that? Uh-oh. No. Believe me, Matt was right out in front of you. He was like, you can't do that. Hold on, hold on. No, I'm kidding. Oh, wait a second. Oh, wait, is this the one with the blaster glasses and the jogging outfit? Oh, no, you were all unequivocal about that, and that didn't make, that was too big. Dude, it's on the poster. What do you mean it didn't make the movie? You're on the poster in your phaser glasses and your jumpsuit. That is historically accurate. I get it. No one's going to know that, though. They're just going to be like, oh, boy. I'm trying to promote it.

53:03That's what I'm hearing. The whole point was to get to the fact that that is not made up. That is the clothes that were worn. And his purple Porsche and his... He had a purple Porsche that said Nike, man. This is Phil Knight, listener, the guy who created Nike. I can't wait to see it. It's fun. And once I started doing it and doing it with people I really loved, and it's true, I love directing in a different way, but acting has become really fun. Tender Bar was really fun. Last Duel was really fun. The Way Back was really fun, weirdly, for a movie about a person whose child dies and is alcoholic.

53:37You were awesome in that. It was like it become joyful because I started developing my own criterion and stopped kind of making it about like, you know, who likes me? As Will says, it's a sexy indifference. Right, Will? Yeah. I don't say that. No. I'm going with overweight indifference.

53:55Indifference is attractive. Well, whatever you're doing, please keep doing it, man. just such a fan you're so great at what you do and you always have been and just thank you very much and I'm gonna hold you guys to it since you're all in the next one for free thank you oh my god oh yeah told you the model thank you I guess we just do it for the art thank you you're amazing for doing this I'm too handsome for film will you let me into the fucking Octurne battle or do I my JV stuff tell Matt here it is yeah give my agent your number yeah no okay great Does Matt own the invites? Yeah. He's the commissioner?

54:31So did he really keep you out? Yeah, totally locked me out. Well, not even locked me out. He was like, maybe keep working. Like that. Try the crossword. He finally, I tell him this. This is insane. He finally won today for the first time in like six weeks, and he was ecstatic. Really? Yeah, yeah. He was having a tough time. But like I said, once I found out that he's in the low 50s, now maybe I'm wondering if there is kind of an intramural league. that I can be, because that is hard. I have a feeling Ben's going to wax all you guys. Yeah, it won't take you long. Believe me, you're a sharp guy.

55:04It will not take you long to fucking make us all look like fools. I'm starting to lose it. You are y 'all young. Ginko. Sure. Ginko. Thanks, guys. I have a question about Batman. Oh, sorry. Sure, sure, go ahead. No, no, feel free. Go ahead, Colin. Ben, love you. Thank you for doing this. Yeah, I love you, pal. Very, very nice. Jason has my number, and you guys, honestly, the movie is here, sitting here on the projector and if you ever want to come at any point, even if I'm not here, it's like, set it up, bring the bell, come watch the movie. You probably don't give a shit and you're going to end up, you know, watching it.

55:35No, no, they do. You live about three blocks from Will. Okay, so someone has no excuse. Oh, shit. We'll walk over. By the way, we will cut this, but I love the new house. Yeah? Thank you. Well, the rental's not too fucking shabby. Is that the one you're talking about, Sean? No, the one that they just purchased. Sean is keeping up with some of our celebrity journalism. No, no, no. I have a real estate agent who's nosing. Oh. But, yeah. The rentals. I saw it under construction. I was like, this is amazing. So I'd love to see it when it's done. You are the first to be invited. We heard it. We got it recorded.

56:13Thank you, Benjamin. We love you. Enjoy the rest of the night. I love you all. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay. Thanks, Ben. Bye, bud. Bye. Wow. Well, that guy, I mean. Fucking wattage, Sean. So when we were talking about... Big star wattage. I mean, we had Damon on tour, and that's fine. Matt was fine. But then we have Ben Affleck. And just coming here with the fucking wattage. I know. And you're like, well, that's the reason. Now, that's a star. That's a star. Yeah, through outer space. Yeah. Through outer... Remember when fucking Matt showed up in a fucking hoodie, and he fucking...

56:47You know what I mean? Just get through the interview. Just get through the thing. And then Ben shows up, and he's handsome, and he's talented and he's smart as fuck. He's prepared. And he's prepared. Yeah. His hair is gorgeous. Yeah. Hang on a second. Jason, Jason, Jason, let me see your hands real quick. I want to see your hands while you're talking. Because it's really dark where you are. No, all jokes aside, wow, that was awesome. Yeah, and when I was doing like the research, you know, learning about him and stuff and about his past and whatever, I was like, and then you go through his credits, you're just like, wow.

57:16Yeah. You get like, wow, bang, bang, bang, hit after hit after hit after hit. Yeah. He's been so relevant and talented and successful for so long, and I feel like he's only halfway done. Yeah, and I think, I don't know if this is true. Does anybody know? Hasn't he played Batman more than any other actor? I'll bet. I think that that might be, I think he might be right. Yeah, I think so. He's played it five times, I think. Really? That's just, I'm so happy for him. Yeah. This movie, he just, he crushes it, and Matt and him did a great job writing a lot of stuff too. He's such a natural as a director.

57:52I mean, Jason, it's kind of what you talk about. When you spend all that time, you know, doing it and you've got a head on your shoulders and you spend all that time on set and in that environment. Yeah, you've got to absorb something. You absorb something and you can kind of apply it. And you have done it and he has done it. And he's made so many great films, you know, as you said. Sean. No, no, no, I know. But what was the one about Iran, the hostages? Argo. Argo. Argo, see that. The Town is amazing as well. That's another great film that he directed. Yes, The Town. I love that movie. Really, really good.

58:23Yeah, see, that's what I'm saying. I didn't even get a chance to talk to him about The Town. That was so good. I know. Well, because you were asking, you know, you had too many questions about, out of left field. He just texted me, I hate Sean. Oh, well, he spelt it S-H-A-W-N, but the hate is spelled correct. No way. No, that's not true. No, he's the guy. My God. What an interesting line. I'd like to read his book. I want to read his book. I want to read Downey's book. Just a book. Any book would be great. I guess, right? Would be amazing at this point. It's top to bottom, left to right, right?

58:58Yeah, as long as the book has a...

59:04Finding center. Those pages are bound. That works. Oh, no. He doesn't even know how it works. Smart. Nice.

59:17Smart Less. Smart Less is 100 % organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjarf.

59:34Smart Less.