Ben Affleck Calls the Success of 'Argo' a 'Dream'
Ben Affleck's new film Argo has received plenty of love from moviegoers and critics to the extent that it was announced to have won a Hollywood Award prior to its release. Receiving that very same award on Monday night, Affleck reflected on the recent buzz about his third directing project.
"We had a great [opening] weekend [at the box office] and then it held on this last weekend, so it's like a dream," he said of the film's success. "I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be more thrilled...It really is just a great ride for me now."
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Argo received the Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award at Monday's awards show for the outstanding collaborative performance of its actors. The film's basis on the 1979 Iran hostage crisis led Affleck to make an interesting comparison between the award and the film's story.
"[It] speaks to the really broad scope of the cast and the movie," he said. "We got really good people, veterans, new people, unknowns. We have 120 speaking parts...It's really, really incredible and it feels like a cohesive effort and to me that also speaks to the large collaborative effort that the real story's based on."
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Former Scrubs actress Kerry Bishe, who plays Kathy Stafford in the film, also observed the similarities between the chemistry amongst the film's cast and that of the people who carried out the real-life mission.
"It's a really special award. There's something about teamwork in this movie, something about how in the real world...this worked," she said. "It really required everybody to come together in a lot of happy accidents, and it feels a little bit like the movie's that way too."
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A slew of stars were also honored at the awards show, including Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Amy Adams, John Hawkes, and Quentin Tarantino. Among this year's Hollywood Spotlight Award winners was Les Miserables actress Samantha Barks, who was ecstatic to receive the award.
"It means the world to me," she said of the award for her upcoming first film. "I've come from such a stage background and to make the transition into the film world and to have received an award as an up-and-coming talent, it means the world to me 'cause it's a new world for me and to be accepted is wonderful."