by Paul Fischer

Ben Affleck strides into the room with an air of boyish confidence. "I want to thank you all for coming here today", he exclaims, arriving late but in buoyant spirits. Much can happen to an actor in so short a time. I remind Ben that the last time we met was at Sundance. There, he was another face in the crowd, waiting for that big break. Little did we know --- "Little did I know either, let me tell you. I'm sure if you did, you would have got a lot more incriminating pictures of me", he adds laughingly. Much has changed in those three years, and even the actor is surprised by it all. "I don't know anyone who wouldn't be surprised. I'm very fortunate and have certainly worked hard, keep on working hard and taking advantage of this. The other way is to sit back and say: finally, the world recognizes my genius," he adds with a sizable grin. But the world did recognize his genius by bestowing on him an Oscar for writing (for Good Will Hunting), though as flattering as that statuette was, Affleck happily concedes that "there's a danger in believing too much in your own PR. But I've had a wonderful run and am enjoying myself."

Of late, that PR Affleck refers to is a girl called Gwyneth. The media loves a good piece of gossip, but Affleck is not about to add any fuel to that particular flame. "I can tell you unequivocally that Gwyneth and I are not going out. We're not a couple. We're not an item." Now, it is easy for Ben to get a tad defensive on the subject. After all, there were those recent photos of him and Gwynnie hugging in Paris, no less. " Look I've said this is before: I care about her enormously, as those damn pictures will tell you," But Affleck just loves to hug, he insists. His latest movie, Bounce, has naturally reignited those rumors. Bounce is a romantic drama, in which Paltrow plays Abby Janello, the young widow of a plane crash victim. Living a lonely life outside L.A., Abby is swept off her feet when she meets Buddy Amaral (Affleck), a successful advertising executive. However, when Buddy reveals that he once gave up his seat on a plane that later crashed, the two realize that they have a deeper connection. "I think it's my favorite so far", Affleck says. "I loved its humanity and the journey my character embarks on. It was a great challenge for me." Given the kinds of big Hollywood films Affleck has done of late (and still doing), he relished the honesty of this script, he says. "To me, the movie is about people who are flawed, which means every day, normal people, who are complicated, contradictory and unusual. That was interesting to me." It was a character with whom the actor could identify. "I could certainly identify with a sense of not liking every part of yourself and allowing those feelings to manifest themselves in behavior that later on you weren't proud of and allowing that to spiral." Affleck adds that he could "also identify with the struggle for self-improvement or to find love." Asked to try and define his own flaws, "there just isn't the time." But the actor does admit to being "a bit overeager, anxious, pensive. I tend to be myopic and tend to get too wrapped up in what I'm thinking, and I sometimes want to over-explain and think things or sometimes I don't explain things enough. Sometimes I can be too generous and too selfish."