Ben Affleck: Making the 'F---ing' VideoThe actor/director talks about playing Jimmy Kimmel's lover in a hilariously dirty, star-packed viral sensation
It boasted more celeb wattage than this year's Oscars: The music video ''I'm F---ing Ben Affleck'' — which debuted on Jimmy Kimmel Live!'s post-Oscar show and has since crippled workplace productivity — is Kimmel's response to another YouTube staple, ''I'm F---ing Matt Damon,'' sung by the ABC host's girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, and his pseudo-nemesis Matt Damon. Herewith, the dirt from Affleck himself on Bimmy's blunt declaration (which re-airs on Kimmel this Friday night).
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: For the courage you showed in shooting this love declaration, did they compensate you well?BEN AFFLECK: They paid me in humiliation. That was my only fee, and I drank it up.
How did this bold pairing come about?I remember seeing Matt's [video] and thinking to myself, ''Oh, it would be funny to do one with me and Jimmy.'' They called and immediately I was like, ''Yes, it should be this idea...,'' and they had the same idea more or less already. I have a lot of respect for the group over there — they're really good comedians — so I just committed to it. Everything I got from them was really funny and made me excited. Although some of it was a little bit like... [Laughs] I looked at it on paper and thought, ''Wow. Okay. I can do this. I can handle it.''
What took you by surprise? The tight outfits? The toe-painting?You couldn't really do it half-speed. You had to be painting toes and blow-drying hair. At one point we were going to take a bath together, but the bubbles couldn't get high enough, so that ended up getting scrapped. The little outfits, the short shorts, the hands in the pockets — it wouldn't have been funny if you didn't really commit to it.
The Kimmel camp was impressed with your level of commitment.I definitely wanted it to be funny and good. And I'm not a particularly squeamish guy. I wasn't too worried about it. A lot of what made it so easy was because the Matt Damon one was so good that people already trusted it and thought this is going to turn out well. I figured ultimately it'll be okay. And if people thought I really was gay...hey, that could help. People might ascribe good taste to me, and they might think, ''Maybe Ben Affleck can cook.'' Or, ''His home might be well cared for.'' My home is actually well cared for, but that's entirely attributable to my wife.
What was the toughest part to pull off?The short shorts were not a challenge — the singing was. Ultimately the song was like six minutes, and the chorus stretched on and on because they kept getting more and more celebrities. I think one verse was taken out. Which is a good thing: I am not a strong singer. When we're going nose to nose, you'll see — or you'll hear — that I'm not singing in the range I'm supposed to. And I'm not keeping time. I don't think this is going to prove a successful reel for any musicals.
What was the backstory on scoring Harrison Ford? Didn't you hear that he was a fan of the ''I'm F---ing Matt Damon'' video?He either said that to my brother or to Jennifer [Garner, Affleck's wife]. So that kind of stuck in my mind when Jill [Leiderman, exec producer of Kimmel] called me and we were trying to get people. The first name that came to me — because I'm such a huge fan — was Harrison Ford. Jill called me back 10 minutes later: ''We got Harrison Ford!'' And I was like, ''What??? Harrison Ford said yes???'' He was awesome. I think people were naturally a little bit intimidated by him, and didn't want to push him at all. He saw his wardrobe looked kind of normal and was like, ''Don't we have anything here that's mesh?'' That beat gets the biggest laugh in the whole video, where he's got his chain and he's in the convertible and he blows a kiss. It's the most incongruous moment in the thing because he's the most rugged, masculine guy in the world, and there he is in his West Hollywood outfit blowing kisses.
Were you surprised that all of these celebrities wound up participating?Brad [Pitt] said yes, and that was really cool. And then Don [Cheadle], Cameron [Diaz], I mean, Huey Lewis, all the musicians who populated the ''We Are the World'' aspect of it... In some ways, my favorite part of it is Josh Groban. I mean, he's just hollering. The way he sings just full-throated cheese at the piano and the shaft of light, I mean, it's spectacular. Every time we got one of those people, I felt like, This is either really great or it's really terrible for me, because I'm gonna have to be living with this ''I'm F---ing Ben Affleck'' anthem for the rest of my life!... I hope it virals out by the time my daughter is using the Internet.
What was Matt's reaction?He e-mailed me. He thought it was hysterical. Like me, he thought it was almost surreal to see all these people, one after another, but that's what makes it really funny.
Are you expecting retaliation?I think the retaliation might be aimed at Jimmy — at least I'm hoping — because he's really the culprit. But in this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if retaliation were visited upon me. So I'll keep my guard up. I'm sure that the next time I end up on that show, there'll be something lying in wait. I don't know, maybe me and Sarah will hook up, maybe it'll be some kind of a three-way. Maybe animals will be involved. It will have to be taken to another level — a horrible, horrible level that will stop being funny and then stop being passed around on video.
I know you care about society. With that impressive array of celebrities who turned out for this project, did you feel like you should've been shooting a PSA?There was a moment where it had the exact same feeling as one of those PSAs, which is kind of disorienting because all those people were there not to do any good in the world but just to celebrate my love affair with Jimmy. They weren't curing anything — except the distance between my body and Jimmy's.
You and Jimmy had never met before this shoot. Did you have a crush on him from afar but were too scared to act on it until now?There's always been a connection. You see someone from across the room, and you glance at one another, and you both look down and pretend nothing happened. I've just always had that feeling for Jimmy, and I've tried to get close to him in many ways. Jimmy has a lot of his family members working on the show, so I've tried to ingratiate myself into his life peripherally — you know, get in good with the family — and that hasn't worked. Ultimately, I just had to approach him and declare my love, and we took it from there. That worked, incidentally — the straightforward approach.
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