Ben Affleck: To cast himself in ‘Argo,’ actor plays an angle [Video]
As the director of “Argo,” Ben Affleck knew who he wanted in the starring role as CIA agent Tony Mendez: himself.
“I was just greedy for this part in this movie,” Affleck said at The Envelope Screening Series. What’s more, he joked, the director and the actor “were sleeping together, so I talked myself into it.”
Affleck was able to cast an array of established actors (Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin) in prominent roles and a variety of up-and-comers (Clea Duvall, Rory Cochrane) in smaller but equally critical parts as the six American State Department employees hiding with the Canadian ambassador during the 1979 hostage crisis.
WATCH: Q&As; from the Envelope Screening Series
While some of the actors (like Cranston) were playing composite characters, the other performers were playing historical figures and felt a strong desire to make sure they depicted their characters accurately, even within a slightly fictionalized tale.
“I feel I owed it to this man,” Goodman said of playing makeup artist John Chambers, “to get it right.”
As this excerpt from the screening shows, Duvall and Cochrane shared his intent.
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