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Ben Affleck opens up about why he “had a lot of empathy” for Britney Spears during her challenges with the paparazzi, claiming they purposefully antagonize celebrities until they have a nervous breakdown.
“Having had my own experiences myself, I knew these are people who are following her [Britney Spears] around at a time where she may or may not have been having difficulty,” Affleck told Theo Von on a recent April 24 episode of his podcast, “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.”
According to Affleck, he was not close with Spears at the time she was facing media scrutiny and did not know the exact details of what she was dealing with, possibly referencing her mental health episodes in the late 2000s.
However, the actor told Von he could relate to “the cycle of having people harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you.” At one point in the episode, Affleck reflected on his own negative experience with the paparazzi, claiming they purposefully “follow somebody around and antagonize them.”
“Then hopefully they’ll have like a nervous breakdown and go crazy on you and then your video will be worth more money you know,” Affleck said.
“Yeah, it’s such a ... that whole thing gets really black mirror-ish, man, you know,” Von responded.
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The “Argo” star compared the paparazzi antagonization to someone “waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it.”
“That’s the first time I thought this is kind of a weird kind of, um, unintentional, I think, culturally, but kind of collective cruelty,” Affleck said.
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“That’s where you think, OK, well, this isn’t really news. It’s not even real. It’s not what would be happening if this effect wasn’t taking place,” Affleck continued.
During the episode Affleck addressed the infamous photos of him where he appears sad or in Von’s words “bummed,” stating it’s because they were usually taken when he was with his family. He shares three children with his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner.
“It’s this selective experience of like take a picture of somebody every time they’re feeling irritated,” Affleck added, “they’re going to look irritated.”
English (US) ·