With the highly-anticipated Gone Girl hitting theaters soon, Ben Affleck has been making the media rounds and opening up about his personal demons in some uncharacteristically candid interviews.
May 02, 2014 Ben Affleck at Poker Tournament in Las Vegas Pacific Coast News Besides being a gifted actor, director and screenwriter, Affleck is also an extremely talented card player. He raked in $800,000 in. Ben Affleck is probably the most entertaining person on the list. In 2014, he was banned from the blackjack table. That happened in Had Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. We know that many gamblers would like to get the opportunity to test their skills in that casino. Anyway, the casinos claimed Ben Affleck was counting cards. After months of rumors, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner will officially go through with their divorce. The couple has been married for 10 years, but it seemed that Garner and Affleck were on the rocks after several stories surfaced about the latter’s blackjack obsession.
Back in May, Affleck was kicked out of a Vegas casino after being accused of counting cards.
Despite his team's efforts to suppress it, the story continued to balloon out of control for weeks, eventually resulting in rumors that recovering alcoholic Ben had relapsed just before the incident.
Now, after months of keeping quiet on the subject, Affleck has decided to use the Gone Girl press tour as an opportunity to come clean.
Is it part of a calculated effort to convince us he was the perfect choice to play the film's boozy, brooding murder suspect? Perhaps...but whatever the reason, Ben's latest interviews have resulted in some truly surprising revelations:
Asked if he went 'method' to depict his character's heavy drinking Affleck, replied, 'In the book it said he was puffy and hungover, and I dedicated myself to that and I think it's quite convincing.'
Director David Fincher confirmed that Affleck hit the bottle to get into character, saying, 'It was six months of real dedication to being hungover.'
Affleck was even more frank about his alleged card-counting when asked about it by Details magazine:
'That is a true story. I mean that took place...I knew with blackjack there's a way to improve your odds so I started trying to learn. And once I became decent, the casinos asked me not to play blackjack...It was presented like I did something illegal, you know what I mean?'
Wow. So when tasked with portraying a guy stuck in a downward spiral, Ben goes all in (literally) and ramps his boozing and gambling up to 11.
We can only hope that when he was cast as Batman, he started prowling the streets at night looking for cartoonish supervillains to punch.
The actor was banned from playing blackjack at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Casino after he was deemed “too good” at the game by security, a source confirmed to ABC News.
Some reports said that Affleck allegedly was counting cards, a gambling method in which the player memorizes which type of cards have already been played and uses that knowledge to perfect his or her playing strategy. It is not illegal but can get a player banned.
“Card counting is perfectly legal,” said Colin James of BlackjackApprenticeship.com. “You’re just using your brain. But the casinos don’t like it because they know if you play long enough you’ll take their money.”
Matt Damon
The casino did not use the words “counting cards,” ABC News’ source said, and the Hard Rock said that it is its policy “not to comment” on guests’ gaming play.
Affleck was not banned from the entire casino, but was told he could no longer try his hand at blackjack, the source said.
The Hard Rock hotel was “very nice” about the incident, and Affleck was welcome to play other games, the source told ABC News. However, Affleck and his wife, Jennifer Garner, decided to head back to their hotel for the night.
The Hard Rock issued a statement that read, in part, “Mr. Affleck, a valued guest of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, is not banned from our property and is welcome back any time.”
Ben Affleck And Ana
Affleck and Garner were enjoying a quick getaway before Affleck headed to Detroit to start filming on the Batman vs. Superman film, ABC News’ source said.
Affleck reportedly has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in blackjack winnings over the years.
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