Ben Affleck Opens Up About His Public Perception Affecting His Kids

Ben Affleck is mostly okay with his memes, unless they affect his kids.

The Good Will Hunting star spoke on dealing with the way he has depicted by the media throughout his career in a new Los Angeles Times interview. While the 49-year-old star has gotten used to life as a public figure over his decades-long career, he admitted that his thoughts changed once kids—Violet, 16, Seraphina, 12, and Samuel, 9—became older.

"I got to a place where [the public perception] was so different from who I am that I just stopped reading and stopped caring," he told the outlet. "But then, as my kids got older and started seeing the internet themselves, that’s the difficult part.

"Even the 'Sad Affleck' meme — that was funny to me. I mean, there’s nobody who hasn’t felt that way at a junket. But then my kids see it and I think, 'Oh, are they going to think their dad is fundamentally sad or they have to worry about me?' That’s really tough."

The Argo director previously shared how important family is to him in a Good Morning America appearance, saying, "My life is better and I am happier the more I am around my kids," per People.

"The only biography that needs anything is written on the hearts of your kids," he said. "I will be long dead and someone will ask my kids what was your dad like and that is when I will know what my life was worth."

Affleck also mentioned to the Los Angeles Times that he has cared less about other people's perception of him as he gets older, calling the mindset "the gift of age."

"The common thread I’ve found from the people I know who’ve turned 50 who are the happiest is that they’ve stopped worrying so much about what other people think," he said. "I think that’s the gift of that age. When you hit 30, you think, 'Now I’ve figured it out,' then you hit 40 and you’re like, 'I had no idea.' Now, when I think about being in my 20s, I wonder, 'How was my brain distinguishable from a gorilla’s at that age?'"

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