GROWING UP

How Ben Affleck Got Serious

Time calls new thriller Argo one of the year’s best films.

Remember Ben Affleck in the early 2000s? When he was known as the less intelligent of Oscar-winning team that wrote Good Will Hunting and during Affleck’s years with Jennifer Lopez (remember his cameo in her video “Jenny from the Block”?)—but since those days, Affleck made the decision to become a serious guy and make serious movies, he tells Time magazine. Affleck decided to start directing after his problematic stint as a celebrity, and now with the release of Argo, a thriller about a fake movie financed by the CIA to free six Iranian hostages, Affleck has achieved such a good image as a filmmaker that Warner Brothers is offering Affleck every script they can.