Ben Affleck talks Boston childhood movie memories, filming at Fenway with Matt Damon on ‘Kimmel'
'If you did that in West LA now, they would call Child Protective Services, like this man has to be imprisoned,' he added. 'So either my parents were very derelict or it was a different era — or both.'
In addition to 'Star Wars,' another movie that left an impression on a young Affleck was 'Back to the Future.' The actor and director revealed to Kimmel that, while on the T home after a screening of the film as a kid, Affleck thought to himself, 'that is the best movie ever made.' About a year later, he got the chance to meet Doc Brown, a.k.a. actor Christopher Lloyd, who happened to be in Boston doing a play, according to Affleck, which ended up being his first celebrity encounter.
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'I saw him on the street, I had never seen a celebrity or an actor before in my life,' Affleck said. 'I was probably 11 or 12. And I realized later, I followed him for 10 blocks. I literally stalked the man.'
Kimmel went on to ask Affleck about his experience as a Fenway Park background actor with his buddy Matt Damon in the baseball movie 'Field of Dreams.' The duo scored the gig after befriending a local casting director, according to Affleck. While star Kevin Costner
'We were like just annoying, you know what I mean?' Affleck said. 'It's sweet of him to say that, but I'm pretty sure he remembers the actors with lines.'
Affleck definitely remembers his time on the film, though, saying it was like 'seeing God' when Costner and James Earl Jones were on set, and that 'everything about it felt so big time.' During the two days of filming at Fenway Park, Affleck also recalled seeing Costner mash at the plate during batting practice.
'He banged a bunch of balls off the Green Monster, hit a ball out of the park,' Affleck said before going on to roast Damon for allegedly claiming in an interview that he once hit a ball off the famed Fenway Park wall. 'I was like, 'Matt, are you remembering yourself as Kevin Costner?'' (To be fair, Damon did
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After joining in on roasting Damon, Kimmel shared a clip of Affleck and Damon's first ever role together as extras in the 1988 film 'The Good Mother,' partially filmed in the Hub and directed by 'Star Trek' actor and Boston native Leonard Nimoy.
'The thing that really impressed me was that Spock was the director,' Affleck said before Kimmel played a very brief scene featuring the 'dynamic duo from Boston.'
'These guys are going somewhere,' Affleck joked.
Matt Juul can be reached at
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