Ben Affleck: Talk of 'The Town'

At 38, Ben Affleck might be a little young for a career reinvention, but that's what's happening to the Hollywood star. Since winning an Oscar in 1998 for co-writing "Good Will Hunting," the actor's career has been all over the map, from box-office disasters (one word: "Gigli") to tabloid fodder (one more word: "Bennifer").

Affleck showed a new side of himself in 2007 with his directorial debut, the critically acclaimed "Gone Baby Gone." He cements his status as a serious filmmaker with his next effort, "The Town" (opening Friday), which finds Affleck returning to the blue-collar Boston neighborhoods that have given him a wealth of good material.

The modestly budgeted (well, $35 million) heist-thriller is based in contemporary Charlestown, a one-square-mile section of Boston that is notorious for producing an exorbitant amount of bank robbers. Affleck directs himself, plus a heavyweight cast that includes Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker"), Jon Hamm ("Mad Men"), Chris Cooper ("Adaptation") and Pete Postlethwaite.

Talking by phone last week from Los Angeles, Affleck spoke about his intense research for "The Town," directing his peers and why he doesn't regret "Gigli."

Q You grew up in Cambridge, which is near Charlestown, right?

A It's close by, in fact it was next to Charlestown. But worlds apart in other ways. My life wasn't anything like the lives of the guys in the movie. Charlestown was incredibly tough and kind of scary. They had this code of silence where -- I think over 15 years -- only 25 percent of the murders were solved.

Q So was Charlestown the type of neighborhood where you would have been beaten up?

Q In creating an authentic Charlestown, was there one thing you were most afraid of getting wrong?

A I was deathly afraid of getting it all wrong. Every single thing scared me. I was worried that people would just say, "This seems bogus." So that was my central preoccupation. I did all this research, met all these people, went to prisons, the FBI, the neighborhoods, bars, restaurants, AA meetings. That's a real AA meeting in the movie.

Q What's the worst part about directing fellow actors?

A The worst part is they don't automatically know where you're coming from. It's a different thing when you're peers with everybody and one of the peers decides, "Let me be the coach." There's this period of adjustment where everybody has to recalibrate their relationships. You're much more inclined to confer authority and trust on a guy with a gray beard who's done 20 movies, than a guy like me who's in his mid-30s.

Q Are you a demanding director like, say, James Cameron or Werner Herzog?

Q How did you get Blake Lively of "Gossip Girl" and Jon Hamm of "Mad Men" -- two actors known for playing incredibly beautiful people -- to shed their well-manicured images?

A They were totally into it. They wanted to do it. Blake and Jon are both really good actors and both don't want to just do "Gossip Girl" and "Mad Men."

Q You've made so many different kinds of movies, from blockbusters to romantic comedies, like "Armageddon" and "Gigli." Do you ever look back and have regrets about any of those choices?

A No. Part of making movies -- in some ways, they're bets. You have all these elements: script, director, cast and then there are the intangible movie gods. You want to have the best of the best. You want to go into it feeling like there is a 60 percent chance that this movie is going to work. And movies where you can't have the best, you can still win, even if you go in with a 35 percent shot. [Or] you can still lose.

There are movies that I loved that no one's seen. There are movies that I didn't like that everyone saw. I've had all kinds of different experiences in this business, and I'm really happy where I am now. So I wouldn't change any of them because then I'd be worried that I wouldn't have wound up right back here today.