Ben Affleck has done a bit of everything throughout his career as an actor, screenwriter, and director, but in recent years, he has been going through a transformation that has greatly benefited his career, and his latest movie, The Tender Bar, continues that path. Ben Affleck’s career in the entertainment industry began at a very young age when he starred in educational TV shows, small TV projects, and commercials. He made the transition to the big screen in a minor role in School Ties in 1992 and an uncredited one in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and his first notable role arrived in 1993 in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, where he played bully Fred O’Bannion.
Affleck’s first starring role was in the drama Glory Daze, and he also appeared in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats and Chasing Amy, but the turning point in his career was written by Affleck and Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting was a critical and commercial success, earning Damon and Affleck the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and putting them in the spotlight as both writers and actors. After that, Affleck became a leading man in the film industry, starring in movies like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Daredevil, and while he went through a not-so-successful period with projects like Gigli and Jersey Girl, his career recovered with his feature-length directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo.
In recent years, Affleck has gone back to being a leading man in big part thanks to his time in the superhero genre. Affleck took on the role of The Flash. There’s still a lot of debate around how successful or not his time as Batman was, but in the meantime, Affleck has found success and praise on character roles rather than protagonist ones, and they are transforming his career for good after all those recent bumps.
Affleck’s most recent acting roles (in a non-lead role) are Affleck played Count Pierre d’Alençon, and his performance has been labeled as the one that stole the movie and has been widely praised by critics. Following up is the coming-of-age drama The Tender Bar, directed by George Clooney and based on the book of the same name by J.R. Moehringer. In it, Affleck plays Charlie Maguire, the uncle and father figure of protagonist J.R. Maguire (Daniel Ranieri, Tye Sheridan, and Ron Livingston). The Tender Bar hasn’t been a critical hit but Affleck’s performance has been praised, even getting a Best ing Actor nomination at the 79th Golden Globe Awards.
It’s interesting that Affleck’s most enjoyable roles in years haven’t been as a protagonist and have been in smaller projects than those of the DCEU, for example, and he also continues to find success as a screenwriter, which is a side of him that many tend to oversee. Ben Affleck had his leading man phase and he did great projects during that time, but right now, his career is benefiting more from character roles rather than main lead ones, and The Tender Bar continues leading him in the right direction in this career transformation he’s going through.
