Let’s count down his gay-friendliest projects, quotes, and f*@#s.
By Brandon Voss
He may’ve been grievously snubbed in the Best Director category, but actor Ben Affleck’s hit thriller Argo (just out on Blu-ray/DVD) remains a frontrunner for Best Picture at Sunday’s Oscars race. Today, however, we're honoring the 40-year-old's gay-friendliest moments both on- and off-screen — not counting that time he, according to an interview in Zoo, “lost [his] virginity all over again" to a colonic.
10. Folks have speculated and fantasized about a romantic or "bros helping bros" relationship between buddies Affleck and Matt Damon since they won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for 1997's Good Will Hunting. Affleck famously addressed the rumors about his sexuality in a 1999 Vanity Fair article, saying, "I like to think that if I were gay I would be out, Rupert Everett-style." He later took the gag to the next level when he basically labeled himself a "top" and Damon a "bottom" on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
9. Appearing on Good Morning America last fall to promote Argo’s premiere, Affleck took the time to congratulate weather anchor Sam Champion on his recent engagement to partner Rubem Robierb. “Oh, I want to congratulate Sam on his upcoming nuptials,” he said. “It’s to our shame that you can’t get married in every state in the union, but one day I hope you will be able to. It’s very exciting, though. I was very inspired. Moving love story."
8. Discussing gay marriage at a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus meeting during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Affleck said, "I have enough trouble figuring out how to get married that I don’t need the federal or state government telling me what to do.”
7. That same year Affleck said, "I don't think the government should be involved in any way in people's bedrooms or lives. With so much hatred and unpleasantness in the world, why would you want to get in the way of people who love each other marrying each other? Anybody who wants to be able to get married to anybody else should be able to. It's not my business." A portion of this quote was recently recirculated by Freedom to Marry in celebrating Oscar-nominated supporters of marriage equality.
6. Affleck was photographed with his gay cousin Jason in a very sweet ad for the 2005 PFLAG Stay Close campaign. “It’s a sort of ‘coming out’ for Ben and me both,” said Jason, who views Ben as an older brother. “He announces he has a gay family member, and I admit he’s my cousin.”
5. Affleck often uses his great sense of humor to show he's down with the gays — and cool with gay rumors. In his 2004 SNL monologue, Affleck tried to unload old “Bennifer” T-shirts after his breakup with Jennifer Lopez. He had also printed up some “Ben-Gay” T-shirts, just in case he hooked up with Marcia Gay Harden — “or… in the unlikely but wonderful event, hope, hope, that Matt finally comes around.” In the same episode Affleck starred in a classic "Boston Teens" sketch as Donny Bartalotti, who surprised his buddies by marrying — and kissing — Smithy, who was played by Seth Meyers. Sample vows: "My dearest Smithy... Your love has opened up parts of my heart that I did not know existed — especially the queer part!”
4. SNL isn't the only opportunity Affleck has taken to kiss another dude on camera. He randomly and forcefully smooched Kevin Smith while co-presenting at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, but even he can't stop thinking about the time he kissed costar Jason Lee in 1997's Chasing Amy. Check out this excerpt from Affleck’s recent profile in The New York Times:
"I was supposed to kiss Jason Lee," he recalled, referring to a pivotal scene. And he had heard peers say that "you were a really great actor if you could convincingly play homosexual as a man," he continued. "And I just blew it. The kiss is in there, but it looks like Tom & Jerry. It's not anything good."
Open-mouthed?
"I tried to go open-mouthed," he said. "But something in me was, 'Take your tongue back.' And I was like, 'No, you can do it! Push!' It was not my proudest moment."
The kiss was on his mind, he said, because Mr. Damon was working on an HBO movie about the pianist Liberace - he plays Liberace's boyfriend, while Michael Douglas plays Liberace - and had recently talked to Mr. Affleck about it.
"Matt's like, 'Yeah, I'm going to make out with Michael Douglas tomorrow,' and it triggered that memory," Mr. Affleck said, adding that he later watched the moment of Mr. Damon's big lip lock. "Not that it would be hard to be better than my kiss, but it was much better than my kiss. Maybe Michael Douglas is sexier than Jason Lee."
3. Unfortunately, there were no same-sex kisses when Sandra Bullock's character goaded Affleck's character into stripping at a rowdy gay bar in the 1999 rom-com Forces of Nature, but it was still pretty hot. A dolla makes him holla!
2. Affleck hasn't forgotten our female sisters either. Aside from starring in the lesbian-themed Chasing Amy and making his directorial debut with a 1993 comedy short called I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney, he famously played a guy who beds a lesbian played by Jennifer Lopez in the 2003 punch line known as Gigli.
1. Of course, the holy grail of where Affleck and gayness intersect is the viral sensation "F*@#ing Ben Affleck," Jimmy Kimmel's video response to then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman's viral video "F*@#ing Matt Damon.” Argo, schmargo — it’s the star's most Oscar-worthy performance yet!
Gay.net, February 2013.