The ex-husband of Jennifer Garner admits to spending hours looking up online slang so he could immerse himself in his role as a high school basketball coach for the sports drama film.
- Mar 3, 2020
AceShowbiz - Ben Affleck briefly became "cool" while researching his role as a high school basketball coach in "The Way Back" after studying teen-speak online.
The Oscar winner felt he needed to understand teens like his daughter to help him get into character and so he spent hours looking up slang so he could connect with his young co-stars.
"It was a joy for me to work with all these young actors, to get back in touch with what it's like to be in your late teens and 20s," the actor explains.
"I tried learning a lot of new slang and how to use Instagram filters. I briefly became kind of cool to my 14-year-old daughter, although that quickly faded."
Ben enjoyed being the old guy on set, adding, "They would ask questions like, 'Hey, when you did that movie, what was it like?' 'Who's an interesting director to work with?' It was fun to hang out with them. They brought a certain newness and excitement to the work."
And director Gavin O'Connor was more than a little impressed with Ben's performance, considering he didn't grow up playing basketball.
"He wasn't in locker rooms and he didn't coach," the filmmaker tells WENN. "We had to work to get him comfortable on the sidelines coaching a team. We spent a lot of time working in a gym with the kids, putting them into situations where Ben was just coaching, coaching, coaching - pacing the sidelines, yelling at referees, getting kids in and out and just leading the team."
