title: South Africa

text: Several important scientific and technological developments have originated in South Africa. South Africa was ranked 61st in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 63rd in 2019. The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967; Max Theiler developed a vaccine against yellow fever, Allan MacLeod Cormack pioneered X-ray computed tomography (CT scan); and Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. Cormack and Klug received Nobel Prizes for their work. Sydney Brenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology.


title: South Africa

text: Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security company Thawte, that was subsequently bought out by world leader Verisign. It is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to be more reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Eastern economies in manufacturing, nor can the republic rely on its mineral wealth in perpetuity.


title: South Africa

text: South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the €1.5 billion Square Kilometre Array project.


title: South Africa

text: Different methods of transport in South Africa include roads, railways, airports, water, and pipelines for petroleum oil. The majority of people in South Africa use informal minibus taxis as their main mode of transport. Bus rapid transit has been implemented in some cities in an attempt to provide more formalised and safer public transport services. These systems have been widely criticised because of their large capital and operating costs. South Africa has many major ports including Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth that allow ships and other boats to pass through, some carrying passengers and some carrying petroleum tankers.


title: South Africa

text: Two distinctive features of the South African water sector are the policy of free basic water and the existence of water boards, which are bulk water supply agencies that operate pipelines and sell water from reservoirs to municipalities. These features have led to significant problems concerning the financial sustainability of service providers, leading to a lack of attention to maintenance. Following the end of apartheid, the country had made improvements in the levels of access to water as those with access increased from 66% to 79% from 1990 to 2010. Sanitation access increased from 71% to 79% during the same period. However, water supply and sanitation has come under increasing pressure in recent years despite a commitment made by the government to improve service standards and provide investment subsidies to the water industry.


title: South Africa

text: The eastern parts of South Africa suffer from periodic droughts linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon. In early 2018, Cape Town, which has different weather patterns to the rest of the country, faced a water crisis as the city's water supply was predicted to run dry before the end of June. Water-saving measures were in effect that required each citizen to use less than per day. Cape Town rejected an offer from Israel to help it build desalination plants.


title: South Africa

text: The South African black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and Westernised, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Members of the middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of Black, Coloured and Indian people, have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia.


title: South Africa

text: South African art includes the oldest art objects in the world, which were discovered in a South African cave and dated from roughly 75,000 years ago. The scattered tribes of the Khoisan peoples moving into South Africa from around 10,000 BC had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by the Bantu/Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. Forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner and the urban white artists, earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards, also contributed to this eclectic mix which continues to evolve to this day.


title: South Africa

text: The South African media sector is large, and South Africa is one of Africa's major media centres. While the many broadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population as a whole, the most commonly used language is English. However, all ten other official languages are represented to some extent or another.


title: South Africa

text: There is great diversity in South African music. Black musicians have developed a unique style called Kwaito, that is said to have taken over radio, television, and magazines. Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while the Soweto String Quartet performs classical music with an African flavour. South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Jonathan Butler, Chris McGregor, and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr, the punk rock band Fokofpolisiekar, and the singer-songwriter Jeremy Loops. South African popular musicians that have found international success include Manfred Mann, Johnny Clegg, rap-rave duo Die Antwoord, and rock band Seether.


title: South Africa

text: Although few South African film productions are known outside South Africa, many foreign films have been produced about South Africa. Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was "District 9" and its upcoming sequel. Other notable exceptions are the film , which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006, as well as , which won the Golden Bear at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2015, the Oliver Hermanus film "The Endless River" became the first South African film selected for the Venice Film Festival.


title: South Africa

text: South African literature emerged from a unique social and political history. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje's "Mhudi", written in 1930. During the 1950s, "Drum" magazine became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to the urban black culture.


title: South Africa

text: Notable white South African authors include Alan Paton, who published the novel "Cry, the Beloved Country" in 1948. Nadine Gordimer became the first South African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1991. J.M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider."


title: South Africa

text: The plays of Athol Fugard have been regularly premiered in fringe theatres in South Africa, London (Royal Court Theatre) and New York. Olive Schreiner's "The Story of an African Farm" (1883) was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form.


title: South Africa

text: Breyten Breytenbach was jailed for his involvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. André Brink was the first Afrikaner writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel "A Dry White Season".


title: South Africa

text: The cuisine of South Africa is immensely diverse, and foods from a many different cultures and backgrounds are enjoyed by all communities, and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the large variety available. The cuisine is mostly meat-based and has spawned the distinctively South African social gathering known as the , a variation of the barbecue. South Africa has also developed into a major wine producer, with some of the best vineyards lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl and Barrydale.


title: South Africa

text: South Africa's most popular sports are association football, rugby union and cricket. Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf, boxing, tennis, ringball, field hockey, surfing and netball. Although football (soccer) commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, judo, softball and skateboarding are becoming increasingly popular amongst the populace.


title: South Africa

text: Association football is the most popular sport in South Africa. Footballers who have played for major foreign clubs include Steven Pienaar, Lucas Radebe and Philemon Masinga, Benni McCarthy, Aaron Mokoena, and Delron Buckley. South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event. Player Benni McCarthy is also a first-team coach for the English football club Manchester United.


title: South Africa

text: Famous boxing personalities include Baby Jake Jacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu, Welcome Ncita, Dingaan Thobela, Corrie Sanders, Gerrie Coetzee and Brian Mitchell. Durban surfer Jordy Smith won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay Open making him the highest ranked surfer in the world. South Africa produced Formula One motor racing's 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter. Famous active cricket players include Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Reeza Hendricks and Rilee Rossouw; some also participate in the Indian Premier League.


title: South Africa

text: South Africa has produced numerous world class rugby players, including Francois Pienaar, Joost van der Westhuizen, Danie Craven, Frik du Preez, Naas Botha, and Bryan Habana. South Africa has won the Rugby World Cup three times, tying New Zealand for the most Rugby World Cup wins. South Africa first won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which it hosted. They went on to win the tournament again in 2007 and in 2019. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations, with the national team Bafana Bafana going on to win the tournament. In 2022, the women's team also won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, beating Morocco 2–1 in the final. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship. South Africa's national cricket team, the Proteas, have also won the inaugural edition of the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy by defeating West Indies in the final. South Africa's national blind cricket team also went on to win the inaugural edition of the Blind Cricket World Cup in 1998.


title: South Africa

text: In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4×100 Freestyle Relay. Penny Heyns won Olympic Gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and more recently, swimmers Tatjana Schoenmaker and Lara van Niekerk have both broken world records and won gold medals at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. In 2012, Oscar Pistorius became the first double amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympic Games in London. In golf, Gary Player is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career Grand Slam, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments include Bobby Locke, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.


title: Roblox

text: Roblox () is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in 2006, the platform hosts user-created games of multiple genres coded in the programming language Lua. For most of "Roblox"s history, it was relatively small, both as a platform and as a company. "Roblox" began to grow rapidly in the second half of the 2010s, and this growth has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" is free to play, with in-game purchases available through a virtual currency called Robux. As of August 2020, "Roblox" had over 164 million monthly active users, including more than half of all American children under 16. Although "Roblox" has received generally positive reviews from critics, it has faced criticism for its moderation, microtransactions, and exploitative practices directed toward children.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" allows players to create their own games using its proprietary engine, Roblox Studio, which can then be played by other users. Games (called "experiences" by the corporation) are made with an object-oriented & open-source programming language based on Lua, known as Luau. Users are able to create purchasable content through one-time purchases, known as "game passes", as well as microtransactions which can be purchased more than once, known as "developer products" or "products". The majority of games produced using Roblox Studio are developed by minors, and a total of 20 million games a year are produced using it.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" allows players to buy, sell, and create virtual items which can be used to decorate their virtual character that serves as their avatar on the platform. Clothes can be bought by anyone, but only players with a Premium membership can sell them. Only "Roblox" administrators can sell accessories, body parts, gear, and packages under the official "Roblox" user account; virtual hats and accessories can also be published by a select few users with past experience working with Roblox Corporation. Several individuals design items as a full-time job, with the highest-earning creators making over $100,000 a year off item sales. Items with a limited edition status can only be traded between or sold by users with a Roblox Premium membership.


title: Roblox

text: Robux allows players to buy various items, and are obtained by purchase with real currency, from a recurring stipend given to members with a Premium membership, and from other players by producing and selling virtual content in "Roblox". Prior to 2016, "Roblox" had another currency, Tix (short for "Tickets"), that was discontinued in April of that year. Robux acquired through the sale of user-generated content can be exchanged into real-world currency through the website's Developer Exchange system. There are a sizable amount of scams relating to Robux, largely revolving around automated messages promoting scam websites, scam games designed to appear to give out free Robux, and invalid Robux codes.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" occasionally hosts real-life and virtual events. They have in the past hosted events such as BloxCon, which was a convention for ordinary players on the platform. "Roblox" operates annual Easter egg hunts and also hosts an annual event called the “Bloxy Awards”, an awards ceremony that also functions as a fundraiser. The 2020 edition of the Bloxy Awards, held virtually on the platform, drew 600,000 viewers. Roblox Corporation annually hosts the Roblox Developers Conference, a three-day invite-only event in San Francisco where top content creators on the site learn of upcoming changes to the platform. The company has also hosted similar events in London and Amsterdam.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" occasionally engages in events to promote films, such as ones held to promote "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Aquaman". In 2020, "Roblox" hosted its first virtual concert, which was compared by "Rolling Stone" to that of American rapper Travis Scott's virtual concert in "Fortnite", during which American rapper Lil Nas X debuted his song "Holiday" to an audience of "Roblox" players. In 2021, Swedish singer Zara Larsson performed songs at a virtual party to celebrate her the reissuing of her album "Poster Girl". On September 17, 2021, a virtual concert by the American band Twenty One Pilots took place. In October 2021, Roblox partnered with Chipotle Mexican Grill to give $1 million of burritos away to the first 30,000 people every day as a part of Chipotle's Halloween Boorito promotion.


title: Roblox

text: The beta version of "Roblox" was created by co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 under the name "DynaBlocks". Baszucki started testing the first demos that year. In 2005, the company changed its name to "Roblox", and it officially launched on September 1, 2006. In March 2007, "Roblox" became compliant with COPPA, with the addition of safe chat, a change that limited the communication ability of users under the age of 13 by restricting them to selecting predefined messages from a menu. In August, "Roblox" applied server improvements and released a premium membership service named "Builders Club". This paid membership feature was rebranded as Roblox Premium in September 2019.


title: Roblox

text: In December 2011, "Roblox" held its first Hack Week, an annual event where "Roblox" developers work on outside-the-box ideas for new developments to present to the company. On December 11, 2012, an iOS version of "Roblox" was released, and on July 16, 2014, an Android version was released. On October 1, 2013, "Roblox" released its Developer Exchange program, allowing developers to exchange Robux earned from their games into real-world currencies.


title: Roblox

text: On May 31, 2015, a feature called 'Smooth Terrain' was added, increasing the graphical fidelity of the terrain and changing the physics engine from a block-oriented style to a smoother and more realistic one. On November 20, "Roblox" was launched on Xbox One, with an initial selection of 15 games chosen by "Roblox" staff. New "Roblox" games for the Xbox One have to go through an approval process and are subject to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board standards.


title: Roblox

text: In April 2016, "Roblox" launched "Roblox VR" for Oculus Rift. At the time of release, more than ten million games were available in 3D. Around the same time period, the safe chat feature was removed and replaced by a system based on a whitelist with a set of acceptable words for users under 13 years old and a set of blacklisted words for other users. In June, the company launched a version compatible with Windows 10. While the game platform has had a presence on the PC since 2004, when its web version was created, this was the first time it was upgraded with a standalone launcher built for Windows.


title: Roblox

text: Throughout 2017, "Roblox" engaged in a number of updates to its server technology, as the technology they were operating on until that point was out of date and led to frequent outages. Also in 2017, Roblox closed its official forums. In November 2018, the ability for a player to play as a "guest", without an account, which had been progressively restricted over the previous two years, was removed entirely. In July 2020, "Roblox" announced the creation of “Party Place”, which functions as an online hangout. The feature was created using new technology that had been used during the 2020 Bloxy Awards and was designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Roblox" was granted permission to release in China on December 3, 2020. In October 2021, "Roblox" experienced its longest downtime to date, with services being unavailable for three days.


title: Roblox

text: In July 2022, a 4 GB archive of internal documents related to the platform's creators, including personal data, were leaked by an unidentified hacker. Roblox stated, "…these stolen documents were illegally obtained as part of an extortion scheme that we refused to cooperate with."


title: Roblox

text: In September 2022, Roblox Corporation announced that it planned to add an age rating system, which would allow for moderate portrayals of violence in worlds flagged as suitable for users 13 and over. The company stated that it was wanting to increase the platform's appeal to a young adult audience of users 17–24, which it stated was its fastest-growing cohort.


title: Roblox

text: Users of "Roblox" have been noted for their efforts against racism, with numerous regular users and co-founder Baszucki having declared their support for the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter. In August 2019, an investigation by NBC News revealed over 100 accounts linked to far-right and neo-Nazi groups. After being contacted about the accounts by NBC, "Roblox" moderators removed them.


title: Roblox

text: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected "Roblox" in numerous ways. Due to quarantines imposed by the pandemic limiting social interaction, "Roblox" is being used as a way for children to communicate with each other. One of the most noted ways that this method of communication is being carried out is the phenomenon of birthday parties being held on the platform. COVID-19 has caused a substantial increase in both the platform's revenue and the number of players on it, in line with similar effects experienced by the majority of the gaming industry, as players forced to remain indoors due to COVID-19 lockdowns spent more time playing video games.


title: Roblox

text: From its release until November 2020, "Roblox"s sound effect for when a character dies was an "oof" sound, which became a substantial part of the platform's reputation due to its status as a meme. The sound was originally produced by the studio of video game composer Tommy Tallarico for the 2000 video game "Messiah", and he and "Roblox" entered into a copyright dispute. The dispute ended in 2022 when "Roblox" pulled the sound from their platform and replaced it with a new sound effect.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" has generally received positive reviews. Common Sense Media gave it 4 out of 5 stars, praising the website's variety of games and ability to encourage creativity in children while finding that the decentralized nature of the platform meant game quality varied, and recommended disabling chat functions for young players to prevent possibly harmful interactions. Patricia E. Vance of the Family Online Safety Institute advised parents to monitor their child's interactions on the platform but praised the platform for "…allowing kids to play, explore, socialize, create and learn in a self-directed way", and granting special praise to Roblox Studio for its ability to encourage children to experience game development. "Trusted Reviews", in its overview of the platform, also praised Roblox Studio, stating that “for anyone seeking to develop their computer science skills, or create projects that will instantly receive feedback from a huge audience, the appeal is obvious”. Craig Hurda, writing in "Android Guys", gave a more moderate review, praising the number of games available and finding that the game was entertaining for children, while also finding that the platform's audio was "hit-or-miss" and declaring that it had limited appeal for adult players.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" has received widespread criticism for its chat filtration system. Although "Roblox"s filtration system, Community Sift, censors and removes most inappropriate messages and content, some can still avoid the system. To combat these issues, "Roblox" has 1,600 people working to remove such content from the platform. "Roblox" offers privacy settings; parents can limit what people a user can contact, restrict access to private servers, and turn on parental controls.


title: Roblox

text: Though sexual content is prohibited on "Roblox", the platform has received substantial criticism for the presence of sexually explicit games and imagery within it. This content includes items like virtual sex clubs and nightclubs, with creators of said content largely communicating through third-party platforms which cannot be regulated by "Roblox" moderators. Such spaces on "Roblox" are often called "condos" and there is a constant effort in taking those places down. A 2020 investigation by "Fast Company" found that sexual content was still prevalent within "Roblox", with attempts by moderators to remove it being likened to "whack-a-mole", though it was also found that the situation had generally improved in the recent years prior to the report.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" has also been criticised for making it easy for children to spend large sums of money through microtransactions, leading to numerous instances where children have spent large sums of money on the platform without parents' knowledge, and deleting the accounts of players who file chargebacks or request refunds for Robux payments through their banks, card issuers or other third-party companies. Professor Jane Juffer at Cornell University accused "Roblox" of encouraging consumerism in children.


title: Roblox

text: "Roblox" has been accused by the investigative journalism YouTube channel "People Make Games" of "exploiting" child game developers by promising them huge amounts of money when they monetize their games, while only giving them little to no money in return by having high revenue cuts, an exchange rate in selling Robux lower than the rate for buying Robux, and lack of methods to make their games easily discoverable. This was likened to company scrip. In a discussion with "Axios", "Roblox’s" chief product officer (CPO) Manuel Bronstein responded by saying that "Roblox" intends to give more money to its community developers. After "Roblox" requested the channel to take down the video, "People Make Games" released further accusations of practices endangering child safety, such as a lack of oversight of developers and a method for people to address developer abuse, leading to child developers being exploited for labor on third-party platforms, allowing a developer to seemingly continue monetizing and having control of game development despite having their personal account banned for reportedly sexually preying on a child, and running the collectibles market to function like gambling, refusing to help a developer whose account was hacked and had its collectibles and assets stolen and encouraging children to seek unofficial and unsafe trading sites to easily obtain highly-valuable items.


title: Roblox

text: In April 2022, Truth in Advertising filed a complaint against "Roblox" with the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive marketing.


title: Roblox

text: In an October 2022 interview, Roblox Chief Scientist Morgan McGuire stated that it's "a challenge to moderate 3D," and also compared moderating "Roblox" to shutting down speakeasys.


title: Roblox

text: Due to its status as a games platform, "Roblox" has a variety of popular games. As of May 2020, the most popular games on "Roblox" had over 10 million monthly active players each. As of August 2020, at least 20 games had been played more than one billion times, and at least 5,000 have been played more than one million times. "TechCrunch" noted in March 2021 that "Roblox" games are largely distinct from established traditions in free-to-play video games, finding that successful "Roblox" games were geared towards immediate satisfaction, and finding that the addition of tutorials significantly decreased player engagement, contrary to established wisdom about free-to-play games.


title: Roblox

text: During the 2017 Roblox Developers Conference, officials said that creators on the game platform, of which there were about 1.7 million as of 2017, collectively earned at least $30 million in 2017. The iOS version of "Roblox" passed $1 billion of lifetime revenue in November 2019. $1.5 billion in June 2020, and $2 billion in October 2020, making it the iOS app with the second-highest revenue. Several individual games on "Roblox" have accumulated revenues of over $10 million, while developers as a whole on the platform were collectively projected to have earned around $250 million over the course of 2020. It became the third highest-grossing game of 2020, with a revenue of , below the Tencent titles "PUBG" and "Honor of Kings".


title: Roblox

text: In January 2017, toy fabricator Jazwares partnered with Roblox Corporation to produce toy minifigures based on user-generated content created by developers on the platform. The minifigures have limbs and joints similar to that of Lego minifigures, though they are about twice the size. The minifigures have limbs and accessories that are interchangeable. The sets included a code that was used to redeem virtual items, as well as blind boxes that contained random minifigures. In 2019, Roblox Corporation released a new line of toys, branded the "Roblox Desktop" series. On April 13, 2021, Roblox partnered with Hasbro to release Roblox-themed Nerf guns and a Roblox-themed "Monopoly" edition.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series "The Voyage of the Mimi" (1984, 1988). He later appeared in the independent coming-of-age comedy "Dazed and Confused" (1993) and various Kevin Smith films. Affleck gained wider recognition when he and Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing "Good Will Hunting" (1997), which they also starred in. He then established himself as a leading man in studio films, including the disaster film "Armageddon" (1998), the war drama "Pearl Harbor" (2001), and the thrillers "The Sum of All Fears" and "Changing Lanes" (both 2002).


title: Ben Affleck

text: After a career downturn, Affleck made a comeback by portraying George Reeves in the biopic "Hollywoodland" (2006), winning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. His directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), which he also co-wrote, was well received. He then directed, co-wrote and starred in the crime drama "The Town" (2010) and directed and starred in the political thriller "Argo" (2012); both were critical and commercial successes. For the latter, Affleck won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck then starred in the psychological thriller "Gone Girl" (2014) and played the superhero Batman in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with "" (2016). After a starring role in the thriller "The Accountant" (2016), Affleck played supporting roles in the family drama "The Tender Bar" and the historical drama "The Last Duel" (both 2021).


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck is the co-founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a grantmaking and advocacy-based nonprofit organization. He is also a stalwart supporter of the Democratic Party. Affleck and Damon are co-owners of the production company Artists Equity and were also co-owners of Pearl Street Films.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California. His family moved to Massachusetts when he was three, living in Falmouth, where his brother Casey was born, before settling in Cambridge. His mother, Christopher Anne "Chris" Boldt, was a Harvard-educated elementary school teacher. His father, Timothy Byers Affleck, was an aspiring playwright who was "mostly unemployed." He worked sporadically as a carpenter, auto mechanic, bookie, electrician, bartender, and janitor at Harvard. In the mid-1960s, he had been an actor and stage manager with the Theater Company of Boston.


title: Ben Affleck

text: During Affleck's childhood, his father had a self-described "severe, chronic problem with alcoholism", and Affleck has recalled him drinking "all day ... every day". His father was "very difficult" , and Affleck felt a sense of "relief" at the age of 11 when his parents divorced, and his father exited the family home. His father continued to drink heavily and eventually became homeless, spending two years living on the streets of Cambridge. When Affleck was 16, his father entered a rehabilitation facility in Indio, California. He lived at the facility for twelve years to maintain his sobriety and worked there as an addiction counselor.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck was raised in a politically active, liberal household. He and his brother, Casey, were surrounded by people who worked in the arts; the boys regularly attended theater performances with their mother and were encouraged to make their own home movies. David Wheeler, a family friend, later remembered Affleck as a "very bright and intensely curious" child. The brothers auditioned for roles in local commercials and film productions because of their mother's friendship with a Cambridge-area casting director, and Affleck first acted professionally at the age of seven. His mother saved his wages in a college trust fund and hoped her son would ultimately become a teacher, worrying that acting was an insecure and "frivolous" profession. When Affleck was 13, he filmed a children's television program in Mexico. He learned to speak Spanish during a year spent travelling around the country with his mother and brother.


title: Ben Affleck

text: As a Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school student, Affleck acted in theater productions and was inspired by drama teacher Gerry Speca. He became close friends with fellow student Matt Damon, whom he had known since the age of eight. Although Damon was two years older, the pair had "identical interests" and both wanted to pursue acting careers. They traveled to New York together for acting auditions and saved money for train and airline tickets in a joint bank account. While Affleck had high SAT scores, he was largely an unfocused student with poor attendance. He spent a few months studying Spanish at the University of Vermont, chosen because of its proximity to his then-girlfriend, but he left after fracturing his hip while playing basketball. At 18, Affleck moved to Los Angeles, studying Middle Eastern affairs at Occidental College for a year and a half.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck acted professionally throughout his childhood but, in his own words, "not in the sense that I had a mom that wanted to take me to Hollywood or a family that wanted to make money from me ... I kind of chanced into something." He first appeared, at the age of seven, in an independent film, "The Dark End of the Street" (1981), directed by a family friend, Jan Egleson. His biggest success as a child actor was as the star of the PBS children's series "The Voyage of the Mimi" (1984) and "The Second Voyage of the Mimi" (1988), produced for sixth-grade science classes. Affleck worked "sporadically" on "Mimi" from the age of eight to fifteen in both Massachusetts and Mexico. As a teenager, he appeared in the ABC after school special "Wanted: A Perfect Man" (1986), the television film "Hands of a Stranger" (1987), and a 1989 Burger King commercial.


title: Ben Affleck

text: After high school, Affleck moved briefly to New York in search of acting work. Later, while studying at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Affleck directed student films. As an actor, he had a series of "knock-around parts, one to the next". He played Patrick Duffy's son in the television film "Daddy" (1991), made an uncredited appearance as a basketball player in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" film (1992), and had a supporting role as a prep school student in "School Ties" (1992). He played a high school quarterback in the NBC television series "Against the Grain" (1993), and a steroid-abusing high school football player in "" (1994). Affleck's most notable role during this period was as a high school bully in Richard Linklater's cult classic "Dazed and Confused" (1993). Linklater wanted a likeable actor for the villainous role, and, while Affleck was "big and imposing," he was "so smart and full of life ... I just liked him." Affleck later said Linklater was instrumental in demystifying the filmmaking process for him.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck's first starring film role was as an aimless art student in the college drama "Glory Daze" (1995), with Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" remarking that his "affably mopey performance finds just the right balance between obnoxious and sad sack". He then played a bully in filmmaker Kevin Smith's comedy "Mallrats" (1995) and became friends with Smith during the filming. Affleck had begun to worry that he would be relegated to a career of "throwing people into their lockers", but Smith wrote him a lead role in the romantic comedy "Chasing Amy" (1997). The film was Affleck's breakthrough. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised Affleck's "wonderful ease" playing the role, combining "suave good looks with cool comic timing". Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" described it as a "wholesome and quick-witted" performance. When Affleck starred as a recently returned Korean War veteran in the coming-of-age drama "Going All the Way" (1997), Todd McCarthy of "Variety" found him "excellent", while Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" noted that his "flair for comic self-doubt made a strong impression."


title: Ben Affleck

text: The success of 1997's "Good Will Hunting", which Affleck co-wrote and acted in, marked a turning point in his career. The screenplay originated in 1992 when Damon wrote a 40-page script for a playwriting class at Harvard University. He asked Affleck to act out the scenes with him in front of the class and, when Damon later moved into Affleck's Los Angeles apartment, they began working on the script in earnest. The film, which they wrote mainly during improvisation sessions, was set partly in their hometown of Cambridge and drew from their own experiences. They sold the screenplay to Castle Rock in 1994 when Affleck was 22 years old. During the development process, they received notes from industry figures, including Rob Reiner and William Goldman. Following a lengthy dispute with Castle Rock about a suitable director, Affleck and Damon persuaded Miramax to purchase the screenplay. The two friends moved back to Boston for a year before the film finally went into production, directed by Gus Van Sant, and co-starring Damon, Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Robin Williams. On its release, Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised the "smart and touching screenplay", while Emanuel Levy of "Variety" found it "funny, nonchalant, moving and angry". Jay Carr of "The Boston Globe" wrote that Affleck brought "a beautifully nuanced tenderness" to his role as the working-class friend of Damon's mathematical prodigy character. Affleck and Damon eventually won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Affleck has described this period of his life as "dreamlike": "It was like one of those scenes in an old movie when a newspaper comes spinning out of the black on to the screen. You know, '$100 Million Box Office! Awards!' " He remains the youngest writer (at age 25) ever to win an Oscar for screenwriting.


title: Ben Affleck

text: "Armageddon", released in 1998, established Affleck as a viable leading man for Hollywood studio films. "Good Will Hunting" had not yet been released during the casting process and, after Affleck's screen test, director Michael Bay dismissed him as "a geek". Producer Jerry Bruckheimer convinced him that Affleck would be a star, but he was required to lose weight, become tanned, and get his teeth capped before filming began. The film, where he starred opposite Bruce Willis as a blue-collar driller tasked by NASA with stopping an asteroid from colliding with Earth, was a box office success. Daphne Merkin of "The New Yorker" remarked: "Affleck demonstrates a sexy Paul Newmanish charm and is clearly bound for stardom." Later in 1998, Affleck had a supporting role as an arrogant English actor in the period romantic comedy "Shakespeare in Love", starring his then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow. Lael Loewenstein of "Variety" remarked that Affleck "does some of his very best work, suggesting that comedy may be his true calling," while Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" found him "very funny". "Shakespeare in Love" won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, while the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. Affleck then appeared as a small-town sheriff in the supernatural horror film "Phantoms". Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" wondered why actors like Affleck and Peter O'Toole had agreed to appear in the "junky" film: "Affleck's thudding performance suggests he is reading his dialogue for the first time, directly from cue cards."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck and Damon had an on-screen reunion in Kevin Smith's religious satire "Dogma" (after having appeared in Smith's previous films, "Mallrats" and "Chasing Amy"), which premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" remarked that the pair, playing fallen angels, "bring great, understandable enthusiasm to Mr. Smith's smart talk and wild imaginings". Affleck starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy "Forces of Nature" (1999), playing a groom whose attempts to get to his wedding are complicated by his free-spirited traveling companion. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" remarked that Affleck "has the fast-break charm you want in a screwball hero," while Joe Leydon of "Variety" praised "his winning ability to play against his good looks in a self-effacing comic turn". Affleck then appeared opposite Courtney Love in the little-seen ensemble comedy "200 Cigarettes" (1999).


title: Ben Affleck

text: Interested in a directorial career, Affleck shadowed John Frankenheimer throughout pre-production of the action thriller "Reindeer Games" (2000). Frankenheimer, directing his last feature film, described Affleck as having "a very winning, likable quality about him. I've been doing this for a long time and he's really one of the nicest." He starred opposite Charlize Theron as a hardened criminal, with Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" enjoying the unexpected casting choice: "Affleck often suggests one of the Kennedys playing Clark Kent ... He looks as if he has never missed a party or a night's sleep. He's game, though, and his slight dislocation works to the advantage of "Reindeer Games"." He then had a supporting role as a ruthless stockbroker in the crime drama "Boiler Room" (2000). A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" felt Affleck had "traced over" Alec Baldwin's performance in "Glengarry Glen Ross", while Peter Rainer of "New York Magazine" said he "does a series of riffs on Baldwin's aria, and each one is funnier and crueler than the next". He then provided the voice of Joseph in the animated "". In his last film role of 2000, Affleck starred opposite his girlfriend Paltrow in the romantic drama "Bounce". Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" praised the "understated intensity and exquisite detail" of his performance: "His portrait of a young, sarcastically self-defined 'people person' who isn't half as confident as he would like to appear is close to definitive."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck reunited with director Michael Bay for the critically derided war drama "Pearl Harbor" (2001). A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" felt Affleck and Kate Beckinsale "do what they can with their lines, and glow with the satiny shine of real movie stars". However, Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote "the blandly handsome Affleck couldn't convince that he'd ever so much as been turned down for a date, much less lost the love of his life to his best friend". Affleck then parodied "Good Will Hunting" with Damon and Van Sant in Kevin Smith's "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001), made a cameo in the comedy "Daddy and Them" (2001), and had a supporting role in the little-seen "The Third Wheel" (2002). He portrayed the CIA analyst Jack Ryan in the thriller "The Sum of All Fears" (2002). Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" felt he was miscast in a role previously played by both Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin: "Although Mr. Affleck can be appealing when playing earnest young men groping toward maturity, he simply lacks the gravitas for the role." Affleck had an "amazing experience" making the thriller "Changing Lanes" (2002), and later cited Roger Michell as someone he learned from as a director. Robert Koehler of "Variety" described it as one of his "most thoroughly wrought" performances: "The journey into a moral fog compels him to play more inwardly and thoughtfully than he ever has before."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck became more involved with television and film production in the early 2000s. He and Damon had set up Pearl Street Films in 1998, named after the street that ran between their childhood homes. Their next production company LivePlanet, co-founded in 2000 with Sean Bailey and Chris Moore, sought to integrate the Internet into mainstream television and film production. LivePlanet's biggest success was the documentary series "Project Greenlight", aired on HBO and later Bravo, which focused on first-time filmmakers being given the chance to direct a feature film. "Project Greenlight" was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004 and 2005. "Push, Nevada" (2002), created, written and produced by Affleck and Bailey, was an ABC mystery drama series that placed a viewer-participation game within the frame of the show. Caryn James of "The New York Times" praised the show's "nerve, imagination and clever writing", but Robert Bianco of "USA Today" described it as a "knock-off" of "Twin Peaks". The show was cancelled by ABC after seven episodes due to low ratings. Over time, LivePlanet's focus shifted from multimedia projects to more traditional film production. Affleck and his partners signed a film production deal with Disney in 2002; it expired in 2007.


title: Ben Affleck

text: While Affleck had been a tabloid figure for much of his career, he was the subject of increased media attention in 2003 because of his relationship with Jennifer Lopez. By the end of the year, Affleck had become, in the words of "GQ", the "world's most over-exposed actor". His tabloid fame coincided with a series of poorly received films.


title: Ben Affleck

text: The first of these was "Daredevil" (2003), in which Affleck starred as the blind superhero. Affleck was a longtime comic book fan, and, in 1999, had written a foreword for Kevin Smith's "Guardian Devil" about his love for the character of Daredevil. The film was a commercial success, but received a mixed response from critics. Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" said Affleck was "lost" in the role: "A big man, Mr. Affleck is shriveled by the one-dimensional role ... [Only his scenes with Jon Favreau have] a playful side that allows Mr. Affleck to show his generosity as an actor." In 2014, Affleck described "Daredevil" as the only film he regretted making. He next appeared as a low-ranking mobster in the romantic comedy "Gigli" (2003), co-starring Lopez. The film was almost uniformly panned, with Manohla Dargis of the "Los Angeles Times" remarking that "Affleck doesn't have the chops or the charm to maneuver around (or past) bad material." Yet Affleck has repeatedly defended director Martin Brest since the film's release, describing him as "one of the really great directors". In his last film role of 2003, Affleck starred as a reverse engineer in the sci-fi thriller "Paycheck" (2003). Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" remarked on Affleck's "self-deprecating charm" and wondered why he could not find better scripts. Manohla Dargis of the "Los Angeles Times" found it "almost unfair" to critique Affleck, given that he "had such a rough year".


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck's poor critical notices continued in 2004 when he starred as a bereaved husband in the romantic comedy "Jersey Girl", directed by longtime collaborator Smith. Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" described Affleck as an actor "whose talent has curdled as his tabloid notoriety has spread," while Joe Leydon of "Variety" found his onscreen role as a father "affecting". Later that year, he starred opposite James Gandolfini in the holiday comedy "Surviving Christmas". Holden noted in "The New York Times" that the film "found a clever way to use Ben Affleck's disagreeable qualities. The actor's shark-like grin, cocky petulance and bullying frat-boy swagger befit his character." At this point, the quality of scripts offered to Affleck "was just getting worse and worse" and he decided to take a career break. The "Los Angeles Times" published a piece on the downfall of Affleck's career in late 2004. The article noted that, unlike film critics and tabloid journalists, "few industry professionals seem to be gloating over Affleck's travails".


title: Ben Affleck

text: Following a starring role in the little-seen "Man About Town" and a minor role in the crime drama "Smokin' Aces", Affleck began a career comeback with his acclaimed performance as Superman actor George Reeves in the noir biopic "Hollywoodland". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" praised "an award-caliber performance ... This is feeling, nuanced work from an actor some of us had prematurely written off." Geoffrey Macnab of "The Guardian" said he "beautifully" captured "the character's curious mix of charm, vulnerability and fatalism". He was awarded the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Also in 2006, he made a cameo in Smith's "Clerks II".


title: Ben Affleck

text: In 2007, Affleck made his feature film directorial debut with "Gone Baby Gone", a crime drama set in a working-class Boston neighborhood, starring his brother Casey as a private investigator searching for a young abductee. Affleck co‑wrote the screenplay, based on the book by Dennis Lehane, with childhood friend Aaron Stockard, having first mentioned his intention to adapt the story in 2003. It opened to enthusiastic reviews. Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" praised the film's "sensitivity to real struggle", while Stephen Farber of "The Hollywood Reporter" described it as "thoughtful, deeply poignant, [and] splendidly executed".


title: Ben Affleck

text: While Affleck intended to "keep a primary emphasis on directing" going forward in his career, he acted in three films in 2009. In the ensemble romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You", the chemistry between Affleck and Jennifer Aniston was praised. Affleck played a congressman in the political thriller "State of Play". Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" found him "very good in the film's silliest role," but David Edelstein of "New York Magazine" remarked of Affleck: "He might be smart and thoughtful in life [but] as an actor his wheels turn too slowly." He had a supporting role as a bartender in the little-seen comedy film "Extract". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" described his performance as "a goofball delight", while Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" declared it "a real performance". In 2010, Affleck starred in "The Company Men" as a mid-level sales executive who is made redundant during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. David Denby of "The New Yorker" declared that Affleck "gives his best performance yet", while Richard Corliss of "Time" found he "nails Bobby's plunge from hubris to humiliation".


title: Ben Affleck

text: Following the modest commercial success of "Gone Baby Gone", Warner Bros. developed a close working relationship with Affleck and offered him his choice of the studio's scripts. He decided to direct the crime drama "The Town" (2010), an adaptation of Chuck Hogan's novel "Prince of Thieves". He also re-wrote the screenplay and starred in the film as a bank robber. The film became a surprise box office hit, and gained further critical acclaim for Affleck. A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" praised his "skill and self-confidence as a serious director," while Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" noted: "Affleck has the stuff of a real director. Everything is here. It's an effective thriller, he works closely with actors, he has a feel for pacing." Also in 2010, Affleck and Damon's production company, Pearl Street Films, signed a first-look producing deal at Warner Bros.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck soon began work on his next directorial project, "Argo" (2012), for Warner Bros. Written by Chris Terrio and starring Affleck as a CIA operative, the film tells the story of the CIA plan to save six U.S. diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis by faking a production for a large-scale science fiction film. Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" said the film offered "further proof that we were wrong about Ben Affleck". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" remarked: "Affleck takes the next step in what looks like a major directing career ... He directs the hell out of it, nailing the quickening pace, the wayward humor, the nerve-frying suspense." A major critical and commercial success, "Argo" won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Picture. The cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. Affleck himself won the Golden Globe Award, Directors Guild of America Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Director, becoming the first director to win these awards without a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.


title: Ben Affleck

text: The following year, Affleck played a romantic lead in Terrence Malick's experimental drama "To the Wonder". Malick, a close friend of Affleck's godfather, first met Affleck in the 1990s to offer advice about the plot of "Good Will Hunting". Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" enjoyed "a performance of dignity and sensitivity," while "The New Yorker"s Richard Brody described Affleck as "a solid and muscular performer" who "conveys a sense of thoughtful and willful individuality". Affleck's performance as a poker boss was considered a highlight of the poorly reviewed thriller "Runner Runner" (2013). Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" remarked that it was "one killer of a character, and Affleck plays him like a Bach concerto – every note perfectly played." He then pushed back production on his own directorial project to star as a husband accused of murder in David Fincher's psychological thriller "Gone Girl" (2014). Fincher cast him partly because he understood what it felt like to be misrepresented by tabloid media: "What many people don't know is that he's crazy smart, but since he doesn't want that to get awkward, he downplays it. I think he learned how to skate on charm." David Edelstein of "New York Magazine" noted that Fincher's controlled style of directing had a "remarkable" effect on Affleck's acting: "I never thought I'd write these words, but he carries the movie. He's terrific." Justin Chang of "Variety" found Affleck "perfectly cast": "It's a tricky turn, requiring a measure of careful underplaying and emotional aloofness, and he nails it completely." In 2015, Affleck and Damon's "Project Greenlight" was resurrected by HBO for one season.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Given Affleck's growing reputation as a filmmaker, his decision to star as Batman in the 2016 superhero film "" was regarded by Dave Itzkoff of "The New York Times" as "a somewhat bewildering choice". Although the casting announcement was met with intense fan backlash, Affleck's performance ultimately earned a positive reception. Andrew Barker of "Variety" found him "a winningly cranky, charismatic presence," while Brian Truitt of "USA Today" enjoyed his "strong" and "surprisingly emotional" take on the character. Affleck reprised his role as Batman later that year, making a brief cameo appearance in "Suicide Squad" (2016). He starred as an autistic accountant in the action thriller "The Accountant" (2016), which was an unexpected commercial success. Peter Debruge of "Variety" felt Affleck's "boy-next-door" demeanor – "so normal and non-actorly that most of his performances feel like watching one of your buddies up on screen" – was "a terrific fit" for the role. Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" wondered why Affleck, "looking appropriately dead-eyed and miserable," committed himself to the film.


title: Ben Affleck

text: "Live by Night", which Affleck wrote, directed, co-produced, and starred in, was released in late 2016. Adapted from Dennis Lehane's novel of the same name, the Prohibition-era gangster drama received largely unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its $65 million production budget. David Sims of "The Atlantic" described it as "a fascinating mess of a movie" and criticized Affleck's "stiff, uncomfortable" performance. He noted that one of the last action scenes "is so wonderfully staged, its action crisp and easy to follow, that it reminds you what skill Affleck has with the camera". In October 2016, Affleck and Damon made a one-off stage appearance for a live reading of the "Good Will Hunting" screenplay at New York's Skirball Theater. The superhero film "Justice League", in which Affleck returned as Batman, was released in 2017. He later described it as a "difficult" on-set experience. Snyder stepped down during filming due to the death of his daughter by suicide, the replacement director Joss Whedon's treatment of actors was the subject of complaints, and Affleck himself was struggling with addiction issues. The film drew mixed opinions from critics; Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that Affleck "looks like he'd rather be almost anywhere else but here."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Amidst an alcoholism relapse, Affleck did not work in 2017. He stepped down as director, writer and, ultimately, as the star of "The Batman", saying he "couldn't crack it" and no longer felt "passionate" about the story. Years later, he said his alcoholism had also been a factor in his decision. Filming of the drug-trafficking thriller "Triple Frontier" was postponed by six months in order to accommodate his treatment for "health issues". Upon "Triple Frontier" release in 2019, Rodrigo Perez of "The Playlist" remarked that director J.C. Chandor "gets a lot of mileage out of the Sad Affleck narrative and perhaps both director and actor lean into the idea." Later in 2019, Affleck made a cameo appearance in "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot", having had little contact with Kevin Smith since the making of "Clerks II" in 2006. Affleck played a supporting role as a diplomat in Dee Rees's political thriller "The Last Thing He Wanted" (2020). The Netflix movie, filmed in mid-2018, received negative reviews from critics, with Tomris Laffly of "Variety" describing Affleck's performance as "oddly removed".


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck's starring role as a recovering alcoholic in the sports drama "The Way Back" (2020) was widely praised. The themes of the movie were "close to home" for Affleck. He relapsed during pre-production in 2018 and the movie was shot in the days after he left rehab; Affleck agreed to put his salary in escrow and was accompanied to set by a sober coach. Richard Lawson of "Vanity Fair" said it was hard to avoid the movie's "meta angle": "Affleck handles his self-conscious task with a generous humility—giving a performance built not out of histrionics or big actor moments, but instead from the messy details of a man in a plateaued distress". David Sims of "The Atlantic" praised the "subtlety", "vulnerability" and "lumbering physicality" of his performance, describing it as "the rawest and most natural" work of his career. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cinemas closed in the second week of the movie's release and Warner Bros. made it available to view-on-demand earlier than scheduled. He received a Best Actor nomination at the 2021 Critics' Choice Awards. Also in 2021, Snyder's director's cut of "Justice League" featured a newly filmed scene with Affleck.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck had supporting roles in two 2021 releases. He played a hedonistic aristocrat in Ridley Scott's medieval drama "The Last Duel"; he also co-wrote the movie's screenplay with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener. Ben Croll of "Indiewire" said that Affleck, "hamming it up under a bleach blonde mop top", was "just an absolute joy whenever he's onscreen". Bilge Ebiri of "New York Magazine" was impressed by Affleck's "imperious" performance as the "wonderfully skeezy Pierre, a marvelously out-there creation who shouldn't work at all and yet becomes an engine of uneasy delights." Brian Truitt of "USA Today" said he "steals the movie": "He seems to have written the most entertaining character in the movie for himself, but we'll allow it." In December 2021, Affleck appeared as a substitute father figure in George Clooney's coming-of-age drama "The Tender Bar". The film premiered at the London Film Festival, with Clooney remarking that he cast Affleck because he is "very intelligent, and he can also come off as the big goomba." Sheri Linden of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that Uncle Charlie was "an unforgettable character, from his very first appearance onscreen" and enjoyed Affleck's "eye-opening" and "exquisitely inflected performance". Pete Hammond of "Deadline" described it as "a part he was born to play", writing that he "beautifully and knowingly" delivered "an unforgettable portrait of the uncle you wish you had." Kevin Maher of "The Times" said he played the role with "extraordinary subtly and depth": "He dominates his every scene, with deftly delivered quips, comedy reaction shots or sheer hang-dog charisma alone." For the role, Affleck was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2022, Affleck and Ana de Armas starred in Adrian Lyne's thriller "Deep Water", an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel. He also made a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith's "Clerks III".


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck and Damon announced in November 2022 that they were setting up an independent production company called "Artists Equity" with funding from RedBird Capital Partners, in response to film studios refusing to share profits from their films with creative artists and restricting creative control. Affleck announced that he would serve as the CEO, while Damon would serve as the chief creative officer and Michael Joe would serve as the chief operating officer. In addition, Affleck would be exclusive to Artists Equity as a filmmaker, while Damon will star in a number of films and exclusively produce for the studio. Meanwhile, Damon and Affleck closed Pearl Street Films.


title: Ben Affleck

text: The first film to be released through Artists Equity will be Affleck's fifth directorial project, a sports marketing drama about Nike's signing of Michael Jordan, starring Viola Davis and Damon, with Affleck playing the supporting role of Phil Knight. Affleck and Damon co-wrote the script with Alex Convery.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck will reprise his role as Batman in "The Flash" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom", both releasing in 2023, in the form of cameo appearances. In addition, he will star in the action thriller "Hypnotic" produced by Robert Rodriguez, in which he plays a detective.


title: Ben Affleck

text: On December 14, 2022, DC Studios co-CEO and chairperson James Gunn revealed on social media that he and Peter Safran were having active talks with Affleck to direct a new DC film.


title: Ben Affleck

text: After travelling in the region between 2007 and early 2010, Affleck and Whitney Williams co-founded the nonprofit organization Eastern Congo Initiative in 2010. ECI acts as a grant maker for Congolese-led, community-based charities. It offers training and resources to cooperatives of Congolese farmers while leveraging partnerships with companies including Theo Chocolate and Starbucks. ECI also aims to raise public awareness and drive policy change in the United States.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck has written op-eds about issues facing eastern Congo for the "Washington Post", "Politico", the "Huffington Post", "Time", "The New York Times" and the "Los Angeles Times". He has appeared as a discussion panelist at many events, including at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Global Philanthropy Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative. During visits to Washington D.C., Affleck has testified before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, the House Armed Services Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Projects.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck is a supporter of the A-T Children's Project. While filming "Forces of Nature" in 1998, Affleck befriended ten-year-old Joe Kindregan (1988–2015), who had the rare disease ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), and his family. He became actively involved in fundraising for A-T, and he and Kindregan testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education in 2001, asking senators to support stem-cell research and to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health. In 2007, Affleck was the keynote speaker at Kindregan's high school graduation ceremony in Fairfax, Virginia. Kindregan appeared as an extra in "Argo" (2012). In 2013, in celebration of Kindregan's 25th birthday and "15 years of friendship with Joe and his family," Affleck and Garner matched donations made to the A-T Children's Project. Affleck appeared in "CinemAbility" (2013), a documentary film which explores Hollywood's portrayals of people with disabilities.


title: Ben Affleck

text: As part of USO-sponsored tours, Affleck visited marines stationed in the Persian Gulf in 2003, and troops at Germany's Ramstein Air Base in 2017. He is a supporter of Paralyzed Veterans of America. He filmed public service announcements for the organization in both 2009 and 2014. He has also volunteered on behalf of Operation Gratitude.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck is a member of Feeding America's Entertainment Council. He made an appearance at the Greater Boston Food Bank in 2007, and at a Denver food bank in 2008. Affleck spoke at a Feeding America rally in Washington D.C. in 2009, and filmed a public service announcement for the charity in 2010. Affleck and Ellen DeGeneres launched Feeding America's Small Change Campaign in 2011. Also that year, he and Howard Graham Buffett co-wrote an article for "The Huffington Post", highlighting the "growing percentage of the food insecure population that is not eligible for federal nutrition programs". During the COVID-19 pandemic, Affleck organized an online celebrity poker tournament to benefit the charity, made a personal donation and urged others to support the cause.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck is a vocal supporter of the Los Angeles-based homelessness charity Midnight Mission. He has volunteered at and donated to the charity. He has also volunteered at Atlanta Mission.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck has described himself as "moderately liberal." He was raised in "a very strong union household". In 2000, he spoke at a rally at Harvard University in support of an increased living wage for all workers on campus; his father worked as a janitor at the university. He later narrated a documentary, "Occupation" (2002), about a sit-in organized by the Harvard Living Wage Campaign. Affleck and Senator Ted Kennedy held a press conference on Capitol Hill in 2004, pushing for an increase in the minimum wage. He spoke at a 2007 press conference at Boston's City Hall in support of SEIU's unionization efforts for the city's low-paid hospital workers. During the Writers' Strike in 2008, Affleck voiced support for the picketers.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck is pro-choice. In a 2000 interview, he stated that he believes "very strongly in a woman's right to choose". In 2012, he supported the Draw the Line campaign, describing reproductive rights as "fundamental". Affleck was a longtime supporter of legalizing gay marriage, saying in 2004 that he hoped to look back on the marriage debate "with some degree of embarrassment for how antiquated it was". Also that year, he remarked that it was "outrageous and offensive" to suggest members of the transgender community were not entitled to equal rights. He appeared alongside his gay cousin in a 2005 Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays print advertising campaign.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck appeared at a press conference with New York Senator Chuck Schumer in 2002, in support of a proposed Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Act. In 2003, he criticized the "questionable and aggressive" use of the Patriot Act and the resulting "encroachments on civil liberties". A reporter for "The Washington Post" overheard Affleck denouncing the Israeli invasion of Gaza at a Washington party in 2009. Steven Clemons, a participant in the conversation, said Affleck listened "to alternative takes ... What Affleck spoke about that night was reasoned, complex and made a lot of sense." Later that year, in a "New York Times" interview, Affleck remarked that his views were closer to those of the Israeli Labor Party than Likud.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck criticized the Bush tax cuts on many occasions. In 2007, he filmed a public service announcement for Divided We Fail, a nonpartisan AARP campaign seeking affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans.


title: Ben Affleck

text: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Affleck expressed concern about conspiracy theories claiming Barack Obama was an Arab or a Muslim: "This prejudice that we have allowed to fester in this campaign ... the acceptance of both of those things as a legitimate slur is really a problem." In 2012, he praised Senator John McCain's leadership in defending Huma Abedin against anti-Muslim attacks. Affleck engaged in a discussion about the relationship between liberal principles and Islam during a 2014 appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher". In a 2017 "Guardian" interview, he said: "I strongly believe that no one should be stereotyped on the basis of their race or religion. It's one of the most fundamental tenets of liberal thought."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck supports the Second Amendment, and said in 2012 that he owned several guns, both for skeet shooting and for the protection of his family. In 2020, he said trips to gun ranges as a young adult made him "uncomfortable to remember ... given the subsequent tragedies with young people and guns."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck appeared alongside then-Senator Barack Obama at a 2006 rally in support of Proposition 87, which sought to reduce petroleum consumption in favor of alternative energy. He appeared in a global warming awareness video produced by the Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2007. Also that year, Affleck admitted he was not "particularly good at being green" while, in 2014, he named "a 1966 Chevelle" as his guilty pleasure. In 2016, Affleck filmed an endorsement for Rezpect Our Water, an online petition to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck registered to vote as a Democrat in 1992, and has campaigned on behalf of several Democratic presidential nominees. He supported Al Gore in the final weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign, attending rallies in California, Pennsylvania, and Florida. However, Affleck was unable to vote due to a registration issue in New York, where he was residing at the time, and later joked, "I'm going to vote twice next time, in true Boston fashion."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck was involved in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry. During the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he spoke to many delegations, appeared on political discussion shows, and attended fundraising events. Affleck took part in a voter registration public service announcement, and traveled with Kerry during the opening weekend of his Believe in America Tour, making speeches at rallies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck campaigned for President Barack Obama. He appeared alongside the then-Senator at a 2006 rally, introducing him as "the most galvanizing leader to come out of either party, in my opinion, in at least a decade". He donated to Obama's presidential campaign in 2007, and hosted two fundraisers for the candidate during the 2008 Democratic Primary. Affleck urged voters to "help make history" in a MoveOn.org campaign, and made several appearances during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In the week of the presidential election, he appeared on "Saturday Night Live" to jokingly endorse Senator John McCain. Affleck did not actively campaign for Obama's reelection in 2012, though he still supported him.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign. He first met Clinton at Camp David in 1998 and, when she was a Senate candidate in 2000, he introduced her at a Cornell University rally and helped fundraise for her campaign. Affleck pointed to the First Lady's work with children, women and "working families". He supported Obama during the 2008 Democratic Primary, noting that Clinton had "moved toward the center" during the campaign. Affleck donated to Clinton's campaign fund during the 2016 Democratic Primary. During the 2016 presidential election, Affleck recorded a New Hampshire voter public service announcement, and was named by the Clinton campaign as a "Hillblazer" – one of 1,100 individuals who had contributed or raised at least $100,000. OpenSecrets reported that he raised $149,028.


title: Ben Affleck

text: During the latter stages of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Affleck said during an interview conducted in Spanish: "I like Bernie, I like Biden, I like Warren but the thing is that most of all; I don't like Trump." When Biden became the Democratic candidate, he donated to his campaign fund.


title: Ben Affleck

text: In 2002, Affleck donated to Dick Gephardt's Congressional campaign, and appeared in campaign literature for former classmate Marjorie Decker, running as a city councillor in Massachusetts. He made donations to the presidential campaigns of both Dennis Kucinich and Wesley Clark in 2003. In 2005, he donated to the campaign fund of Deval Patrick, a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. In 2006, Affleck contributed to Cory Booker's Newark mayoral campaign, and introduced Congressmen Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy at rallies in Connecticut. He donated to the 2008 Congressional campaign of Pennsylvania's Patrick Murphy, and to the 2010 Senate campaign of Kirsten Gillibrand. Affleck hosted a 2012 fundraiser for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, endorsed her in a Progressive Change Campaign Committee video, and made a campaign donation. In 2013, he hosted a fundraiser for Cory Booker, and made donations to the Senate campaigns of both Booker and Alison Lundergan Grimes. He donated to the campaign of Senate candidate Kamala Harris in 2015 and the Congressional campaign of Melissa Gilbert in 2016. In 2017, he donated to the Senate reelection campaigns of Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons, and to Adam Schiff's Congressional campaign. In 2018, he made contributions to the Congressional campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sharice Davids and Leann Jacobsen, and to Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. In 2019, Affleck donated to the presidential campaigns funds of both Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and hosted a fundraiser for Booker. Also in 2019, he contributed to the congressional campaign funds of both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. In 2020, he spoke at a virtual rally in support of Whitney Williams, a candidate in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election.


title: Ben Affleck

text: In the early 2000s, Affleck often expressed an interest in running for political office one day, but since 2007, he has denied any political ambitions and spoken repeatedly about the need for campaign finance reform. In 2005, "The Washington Post" reported that Virginia Democrats were trying to persuade Affleck to run as a Senate candidate. His publicist dismissed the rumor. In 2012, political pundits and Democratic strategists including Bob Shrum and Tad Devine speculated that Affleck was considering running for a Massachusetts Senate seat. Affleck denied the rumor, and joked that he "also won't be throwing my hat in the ring to run the U.N."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck was married to actress Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018. They began dating in August 2004, having established a friendship on the sets of "Pearl Harbor" (2001) and "Daredevil" (2003). They were married on June 29, 2005, in a private Turks and Caicos ceremony. Victor Garber, who officiated the ceremony, and his partner, Rainer Andreesen, were the only guests. Affleck and Garner have three children together: daughters Violet Anne (born December 2005) and Seraphina Rose Elizabeth (born January 2009), and son Samuel Garner (born February 2012).


title: Ben Affleck

text: They publicly announced their separation in June 2015, with Affleck continuing to live in a guesthouse at the family home until mid-2017. They jointly filed for divorce in April 2017, seeking joint physical and legal custody of their children, and it was finalized in October 2018. In 2020, Affleck described the divorce as "the biggest regret of my life" and "a painful experience, even if you're on the best possible terms and you agree it's the best choice." He also stated that he had never envisioned himself as a divorced person and that he had been reluctant to divorce because of the impact it would have on his children.


title: Ben Affleck

text: While Affleck believes paparazzi attention is "part of the deal" of stardom, he has spoken out against photographs taken at his private residence and paparazzi interest in his children specifically, who he says became the "big money" draw for photographers waiting outside his home. In 2013, Affleck and Garner hosted an event for lawmakers at their home in support of a bill that would protect celebrities' children from harassment by photographers; their six-year-old daughter made a speech about her personal experiences. Garner also testified before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee in support of the bill, which later became law. Despite the legislation, photographers still regularly wait outside their children's school and police assistance is sometimes required. In 2014, Affleck argued in favor of United Kingdom-style legislation that requires media outlets to blur children's faces in published photos. He has said there are "real practical dangers" involved in paparazzi attention, citing Garner's longtime stalker, Steven Burky, who was arrested in December 2009 while trying to blend in with paparazzi outside their daughter's preschool. He was charged with two counts of stalking, to which he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In March 2010, he was ruled insane, sent to California's state mental hospital, and ordered to stay away from the Affleck-Garner family for 10 years if released.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck first dated Jennifer Lopez from 2002 to 2004. They became friends on the set of "Gigli" in December 2001, having previously encountered each other at industry parties. They began a romantic relationship in July 2002 when Lopez filed for divorce from her second husband, Cris Judd. Their relationship was extensively publicized, with tabloids referring to the couple as Bennifer, the first celebrity portmanteau of its kind. They appeared together in the music video for her song "Jenny from the Block" and the film "Jersey Girl". Lopez's album "This Is Me... Then" was dedicated to and inspired by Affleck. They became engaged in November 2002 but their planned wedding on September 14, 2003, was postponed with four days' notice because of "excessive media attention". They called off the engagement in January 2004.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck and Lopez remained in occasional contact in the years after their breakup and spoke highly of each other in public. According to Lopez, Affleck's discomfort with the media scrutiny was one reason for their split and, years later, she described it as her "first real heartbreak": "I think different time, different thing, who knows what could've happened but there was a genuine love there."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Both during the relationship and in the months after the break-up, Affleck characterized some of the media commentary as rooted in racism, classism and sexism: "We were thought of as two different kinds of people." In subsequent years, he pushed back against the "curious notion" that he should view the relationship as a mistake, and reflected on the prevailing tabloid culture at the time "where it's about one person and everybody focuses on them." Affleck acknowledged that "there were ways I did contribute to it", citing the "Jenny from the Block" music video and a joint promotional interview for "Gigli". He said neither of them "anticipated" the degree of attention they would receive: "I think Jen and I made a mistake in that we fell in love, we were excited and maybe too accessible."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck and Lopez began dating again in April 2021, 20 years after they first met, and announced their second engagement in April 2022. They were married in Las Vegas on July 16, 2022, with Affleck becoming stepfather to Lopez's twins, Max and Emme Muñiz.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck's first major relationship was with short-film director Cheyenne Rothman, whom he started dating in high school and was with for seven years.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck began dating actress Gwyneth Paltrow in October 1997 after meeting at a Miramax dinner, and they later worked together on "Shakespeare in Love" (1998). Although they first broke up in January 1999, months later, Paltrow persuaded Affleck to co-star with her in "Bounce" (2000) and they soon resumed their relationship. They separated again in October 2000. In 2015, Paltrow said they were friends.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck had a long-distance relationship with New York-based television producer Lindsay Shookus from mid-2017 to mid-2018; they briefly dated again in early 2019. Shookus served as the head of "Saturday Night Live"s talent department at the time, a show which Affleck has hosted five times since 2000. Affleck dated Cuban actress Ana de Armas, whom he met on the set of "Deep Water" in the fall of 2019, from early 2020 to early 2021.


title: Ben Affleck

text: There is a history of addiction and mental illness in Affleck's family. Two of his grandparents were alcoholics. His paternal grandmother, addicted to both alcohol and barbiturates, died by suicide at age 46. His paternal uncle was an addict who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His aunt was a heroin addict. Affleck attended Al-Anon support meetings as a child due to his father's addiction issues. His brother is a recovering alcoholic.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck's own drinking became a concern when he was fifteen. His mother sent him to an Outward Bound wilderness camp for at-risk teenagers, having first considered a residential recovery program. Affleck became sober in his mid-twenties, stating in a 1998 interview that alcohol was "dangerous" for him. He received residential treatment for addiction in 2001 and maintained his sobriety for a "couple of years" afterward. In subsequent years, he refused to discuss his alcoholism in detail and later described it as a period where he "drank relatively normally". "I thought, 'I want to just drink like a normal person. I want to have wine at dinner.' And I was able to for about eight years." Affleck gradually began to drink "more and more" and, eventually, was drinking until he "passed out" on a nightly basis. Before dating Affleck, when Jennifer Garner was filming "13 Going on 30" (2004), "her director, Gary Winick, suggested she get involved with Al-Anon, a group for people living with addicts." This would prove helpful later on, as she supported Affleck's struggles with alcoholism during their marriage and after they separated. Affleck returned to residential treatment in 2017 and, following a publicly documented relapse and intervention, again in 2018. In late 2019, TMZ filmed him stumbling on a Los Angeles street; he acknowledged the following day that he had a brief "slip" after over a year of sobriety. He later described the incident as "embarrassing": "I wish it didn't happen. I really wish it wasn't on the internet for my kids to see."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck has both anxiety and depression, and has taken antidepressants since age 26. He said he used alcohol to alleviate a constant feeling of "discomfort" and remarked that it "took me a long time to fundamentally, deeply, without a hint of doubt, admit to myself that I am an alcoholic." He follows a twelve-step program. During the press junket for "The Way Back" in 2020, Affleck opened up about his addiction but stressed that he felt "vulnerable" and did not intend to "go on talking about this issue forever", saying: "I think the value, if there is value in me talking about being a recovering alcoholic, is that that doesn't have to be who you are. That doesn't have to be the label on your head." While doing interviews for "The Tender Bar" (2021), a movie that has similarities to Affleck's own family background, he spoke about the effect of growing up with an often absent, alcoholic father had on him – and how it partly influenced his own decisions and struggles with alcoholism. According to Affleck, he has managed to stay healthy and sober since early 2020.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck won the 2004 California State Poker Championship, taking home the first prize of $356,400 and qualifying for the 2004 World Poker Tour final tournament. He was one of many celebrities, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, who took part in Molly Bloom's high-stakes poker games in the mid-2000s. In 2014, Affleck was asked to refrain from playing blackjack at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, after a series of wins aroused suspicion that he was counting cards, which is a legal gambling strategy, though frowned upon by casinos. Affleck has repeatedly denied tabloid reports of a gambling addiction.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck came from Protestant ancestors, but his family was not religious. As infants, each of his three children were baptized as members of the United Methodist Church. In 2008, he listed the Gospel of Matthew as one of the books that made a difference in his life, and in 2012, he described himself as agnostic. In 2015, Affleck began attending weekly Methodist church services in Los Angeles with his family. When asked about his faith in 2020, Affleck said it "has been a struggle for me": "I don't have a sense of an anthropomorphized guy up there pushing buttons, that seems hard for me, but the twelve-step program is faith-based ... Faith has served me well in recovery as an alcoholic."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Much of Affleck's ancestry is English, Irish, Scottish and German. Affleck's said-to-be maternal great-great-grandfather, , who, aged 12, accidentally discovered the Curmsun Disc, emigrated from Prussia in the late 1840s.


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck appeared on the PBS genealogy series "Finding Your Roots" in 2014. When told that an ancestor had been a slave owner in Georgia, Affleck responded: "God. It gives me kind of a sagging feeling to see a biological relationship to that. But, you know, there it is, part of our history ... We tend to separate ourselves from these things by going like, 'It's just dry history, and it's all over now'." Leaked emails from the 2015 Sony email hacking scandal showed that, after filming, Affleck felt uncomfortable about the segment, which was not included in the final broadcast. The show's host, professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., stated: "We focused on what we felt were the most interesting aspects of his ancestry." An internal investigation by PBS concluded that Affleck had exerted "improper influence" over the editorial process and that the producers of the show, including Gates, had violated PBS standards by improperly withholding information. The show was temporarily postponed, resuming after a fact-checker and an "independent genealogist" were added to the show's staff. Affleck's episode was removed from the show's online archive.


title: Ben Affleck

text: In 2009, the New England Historic Genealogical Society discovered that Affleck is an 11th cousin of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.


title: Ben Affleck

text: During the Me Too movement in 2017, Affleck was accused by two women of inappropriate behavior. Actress Hilarie Burton stated that, during an on-air appearance on "TRL Uncensored" in 2003, Affleck "wraps his arm around me, and comes over and tweaks my left boob". Affleck responded on Twitter: "I acted inappropriately toward Ms. Burton and I sincerely apologize." Annamarie Tendler, a makeup artist, said that Affleck "grabbed my ass at a Golden Globes party in 2014 ... He tried to play it like he was politely moving me out of the way."


title: Ben Affleck

text: In response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Affleck pledged to donate any future profits from his early Miramax films to charities supporting victims of sexual assault and said he had only been aware that Weinstein "was sleazy and a bully." In a tweet, actress Rose McGowan responded: "You lie." She said she met Affleck after being sexually assaulted by Weinstein during the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 and told him, while crying, that she had "just come from Harvey's and he said, 'Goddamnit, I told him to stop doing that.'" In a leaked email regarding McGowan's case, Affleck stated: "I never saw Rose at any hotel in Sundance. She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone." In a 2019 interview, Affleck said: "I don't really want to get into other people's individual stories because I feel like those are their stories and they're entitled to tell as much or as little of those as they want. I believe Rose. I support her. I really like and admire her tenacity and I wish her the best." In 2020, McGowan clarified her comments: "It's not like I'm raging at Ben Affleck. I never said to him, 'I was just raped.' It's just more to illustrate the point of this continual thing of everybody knowing and everybody being part of it, unwittingly or proactively."


title: Ben Affleck

text: Affleck has appeared in more than 50 films and won many accolades throughout his career as an actor, writer, and director. He first gained recognition as a writer when he won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for "Good Will Hunting" (1997), which he co-wrote with Matt Damon; Affleck remains the youngest person ever to win a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, at 25 years old. As an actor, he received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in "Hollywoodland" (2006) and "The Tender Bar" (2021). The film "Argo" (2012), which he directed, co-produced, and starred in, won him the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Directors Guild Award for Best Director, as well as the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, the Producers Guild Award, and the Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: New Zealand

text: New Zealand ( ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.


title: New Zealand

text: The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which in its English version declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire. Subsequently, a series of conflicts between the colonial government and Māori tribes resulted in the alienation and confiscation of large amounts of Māori land. New Zealand became a dominion in 1907; it gained full statutory independence in 1947, retaining the monarch as head of state. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 5.1 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening of culture arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language, with the local dialect of English being dominant.


title: New Zealand

text: A developed country, New Zealand ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, government transparency, and economic freedom. The country was the first to introduce a minimum wage, and the first to give women the right to vote. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. The service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, and agriculture; international tourism is also a significant source of revenue. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister, currently Jacinda Ardern. King Charles III is the country's monarch and is represented by the governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes. The Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau (a dependent territory); the Cook Islands and Niue (self-governing states in free association with New Zealand); and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica.


title: New Zealand

text: New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, UKUSA, OECD, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum.


title: New Zealand

text: The first European visitor to New Zealand, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, named the islands "Staten Land", believing they were part of the that Jacob Le Maire had sighted off the southern end of South America. Hendrik Brouwer proved that the South American land was a small island in 1643, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Tasman's discovery from Latin, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. This name was later anglicised to New Zealand.


title: New Zealand

text: This was written as "Nu Tireni" in the Māori language. In 1834 a document written in Māori and entitled "" was translated into English and became the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand. It was prepared by , the United Tribes of New Zealand, and a copy was sent to King William IV who had already acknowledged the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, and who recognised the declaration in a letter from Lord Glenelg.


title: New Zealand

text: New Zealand is one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest that Eastern Polynesians first settled the New Zealand archipelago between 1250 and 1300, although newer archaeological and genetic research points to a date no earlier than about 1280, with at least the main settlement period between about 1320 and 1350, consistent with evidence based on genealogical traditions. This represented a culmination in a long series of voyages through the Pacific islands. Over the centuries that followed, the Polynesian settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population formed different (tribes) and (subtribes) which would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point, a group of Māori migrated to , now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture. The Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 in the Moriori genocide, largely because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases also contributed. In 1862, only 101 survived, and the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933.


title: New Zealand

text: In a hostile 1642 encounter between Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and Dutch explorer Abel Tasman's crew, four of Tasman's crew members were killed, and at least one Māori was hit by canister shot. Europeans did not revisit New Zealand until 1769, when British explorer James Cook mapped almost the entire coastline. Following Cook, New Zealand was visited by numerous European and North American whaling, sealing, and trading ships. They traded European food, metal tools, weapons, and other goods for timber, Māori food, artefacts, and water. The introduction of the potato and the musket transformed Māori agriculture and warfare. Potatoes provided a reliable food surplus, which enabled longer and more sustained military campaigns. The resulting intertribal Musket Wars encompassed over 600 battles between 1801 and 1840, killing 30,000–40,000 Māori. From the early 19th century, Christian missionaries began to settle New Zealand, eventually converting most of the Māori population. The Māori population declined to around 40% of its pre-contact level during the 19th century; introduced diseases were the major factor.