Ben Affleck learned early that Hollywood can be a very different place when the hits stop coming. After finding success at a young age, the actor quickly discovered that the attention, opportunities, and relationships that came with being in demand could disappear just as quickly.

That realization became one of the most important lessons of his career and changed the way he approached the industry altogether.

During a recent episode of New Heights, Jason Kelce asked Ben Affleck about his “welcome to Hollywood” moment. Affleck said he had plenty of stories, but one particular period stood out.

After becoming successful young, Affleck began making movie after movie because he was afraid the opportunity could disappear. But the tables turned when his films were not working, and he could not get work at all. That's when Affleck noticed that people he had considered friends—including studio heads and other Hollywood figures—stopped returning his calls and began avoiding him.

“And I realized, oh, okay. Like that was the Hollywood moment where I was like, these people are really aren’t your friends,” Affleck said. 

He came to understand that some Hollywood relationships were tied to what being around a person could offer. If someone's success could make another person look good or benefit their career, they wanted to be close. When that success disappeared, so did some of those relationships.

“Don’t get overinflated, and don’t get yourself too attached to how the world treats you. One day it treats you one way, and the next day another, you have to keep an even keel,” he shared his two cents of wisdom on New Heights.

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And that hard-earned perspective may explain why Affleck is now willing to make a choice that would have been unthinkable earlier in his career.

That lesson seems to have shaped how Affleck approaches Hollywood today. In a recent GQ conversation, he explained that even an opportunity like Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey might not be enough to make him leave the life he has built.

“There’s a cost to doing that,” Affleck explained, arguing that movies can provide purpose and drive, but making them paramount can mean missing what matters outside Hollywood. 

Affleck admitted that turning down a Nolan movie would be difficult, but said he is comfortable with the possibility. He even said he could turn down a Martin Scorsese movie if accepting it meant compromising the life he wants.  

For Affleck, the lesson seems simple: Hollywood's attention can come and go, but he does not want his sense of self to depend on it.

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