Ben Affleck went viral after a cameraperson caught a photo of him looking miserable at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony. But he recently shared the story behind the snapshot, and it’s clear that the entire situation was taken out of context.
While talking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Gone Girl star insisted he had a “good time” at the event, despite his glum face being plastered all over social media. The photo was just taken an inopportune time as he was trying to pull a fast one on his wife, Jennifer Lopez.
The moment came when Grammy host Trevor Noah approached them. He didn’t want to get stuck in a conversation, so he planned an escape. But the plan never came to fruition.
“I saw [Noah] and I was like, ‘Oh, God,'” he said. “They were framing us in this shot, but I didn’t know they were rolling. I leaned into her and I was like, ‘As soon they start rolling, I’m going to slide away from you and leave you sitting next to Trevor.’ She goes, ‘You better fucking not leave.’ That’s a husband-and-wife thing.”
He further explained that the experience was perfectly pleasant, despite the fact that it was a “wife’s work event.”
“I had a good time at the Grammys. My wife was going, and I thought, ‘Well, there’ll be good music. It might be fun,'” he added.
Ben Affleck Promises He Had a ‘Good Time’ at His ‘Wife’s Work Event’
Ben Affleck explained that the music awards show was much different from the film awards shows he’s used to attending. Instead of “speeches, like, sound-mixing webinars,” it was full of performances and a completely different crowd.
“I thought this would be fun,” he continued. “I mean, some of it is, I’m like, ‘All right, who is this act?’ Like, I don’t keep up. My wife does, obviously.”
While the experience was new and interesting, He definitely found the internet’s response to his meme interesting, though, mostly because people made the snap decision that he had reverted back to alcoholism, which is something he gained control of years ago.
“I’ve gone to events and been pissed off. And I’ve gone and been bored. I’ve gone to award shows and been drunk, a bunch. Nobody ever once said I’m drunk,” he mentioned. “[But at the Grammys] they were like, ‘He’s drunk.’ And I thought, ‘that’s interesting. That raises a whole other thing about whether or not it’s wise to acknowledge addiction because there’s a lot of compassion, but there is still a tremendous stigma, which is often quite inhibiting. I do think it disincentivizes people from making their lives better.”