The Martian star Matt Damon says actor close friend Ben Affleck is the most misunderstood man in Hollywood.
Damon said the media’s wrong perception of Affleck started early in his career, particularly after his high-profile relationship with Jennifer Lopez, and he has been unfairly typecast in Hollywood ever since, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“There’s nobody who’s more misunderstood. Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been farther apart from who he actually is,” he said. “It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez. He just got cast as this person that he wasn’t.”
Damon, 44, added that 43-year-old Affleck’s career, which included a 2013 Best Picture Oscar for Argo , might just be more impressive than his own.
“Through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top. And past where either of us had ever been.”
The actor said watching his childhood friend suffer was hard. “It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn’t fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all.”
He said no matter what the perception of his close friend might be, the one thing people should not do is discredit Affleck’s talent and the work he has done to prove himself over the years.
