Unlike audiences, Ben Affleck has no regrets about Surviving Christmas

Conceding—again graciously—that Surviving Christmas was a bummer for pretty much everybody, Affleck yet said, “Some of these experiences, while maybe not great for the audience, were definitely great for me. I’ve learned more from mistakes and from perceived failures than success.” He then blamed the studio for “abandoning” the film, and sending him and Gandolfini out to “walk the plank” by doing press for a project everybody knew was doomed. 

In keeping with that glass-half-full approach to his self-confessedly spotty filmography, the actor also tossed a bone to infamously reviled flop Gigli, blaming that film’s disastrous release and reputation on his then tabloid-fodder relationship with costar Jennifer Lopez. Calling the Martin Brest-directed mob rom-com “a movie that didn’t work, but not the worst movie,” Affleck told Horowitz, “In fact, all the people that mocked and derided it, I think very few actually saw. It was a function of like we’re so exhausted by and overexposed by this Ben Affleck Jennifer Lopez phenomenon, which itself was a function of being a tabloid story.” As John Goodman explained recently, sometimes a movie’s just for them. 

You can watch the full, wide-ranging Happy Sad Confused interview below: