Over the last several years, Ben Affleck has become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. For example, Affleck is one of a select few actors who has enjoyed enough success that they’ve been tapped to play Batman on the big screen. On top of that impressive feat, Affleck has become an extremely in-demand director, writer, and producer due to his behind the scenes work on a slew of highly respected films.

Given the vaunted place in Hollywood that Ben Affleck currently enjoys, you may assume that things have always gone his way during his lengthy career. However, that certainly isn’t the case as not too long ago it seemed like audiences had lost faith in Affleck as an actor and they were sick of seeing him perform.

In some cases, famous actors have seen their careers destroyed based entirely on a single event. In the case of Ben Affleck, however, there were several reasons why audiences seemingly turned on him for a while during the early-2000s. With that in mind, you may assume that Affleck regrets many of the decisions he made during those years. Instead, Affleck has talked about regretting one thing in particular, appearing in the music video for Jennifer Lopez’s song “Jenny From the Block”.

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Bennifer

At any given time over the last several years, there have been so many celebrity couples out there that the tabloids haven’t had to worry about finding fodder to cover. Despite that fact, at various points, there have been certain couples that the tabloids have seemingly become obsessed with for one reason or another. For example, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were a tabloid favorite couple for quite a while.

When Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez dated from 2002 until 2004, it seemed like images of them screamed at the world from the front page of every tabloid magazine that was published. Given how photogenic they were as a couple, that makes sense to a certain degree. However, it didn’t take long for most people to become extremely sick of Lopez and Affleck together.

In addition to the fact that the press was obsessed with Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck for a while, they starred in a pair of films together. Unfortunately, both of those films were poorly received in just about every circle. In fact, Affleck and Lopez’s first film together, Gigli, is widely considered to be one of the worst movies of all-time.

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Jenny From The Block

When the music video for Jennifer Lopez’s “Jenny From the Block” was filmed in late 2002, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck had already become one of the most talked-about couples in Hollywood. However, the general public wasn’t overly sick of them yet so it made some sense for Affleck to cameo in that music video.

Once the masses became tired of seeing Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck everywhere, the music video for “Jenny From the Block” playing all the time only made the problem worse. Evidently aware of that fact, during a 2008 interview with the website dailyrecord.co.uk, Affleck made it clear he knows appearing in the music video was a mistake. "If I have a regret, it was doing the music video. But that happened years ago. I've moved on."

To Ben Affleck’s credit, he then went on to speak about how he is aware that blaming Jennifer Lopez for any damage to his career would be unfair and make him look bad. "It not only makes me look like a petulant fool, but it surely qualifies as ungentlemanly? For the record, did she hurt my career? No."

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Mutual Admiration

In Hollywood and real life, there tends to be a lot of hard feelings when most couples go their separate ways. Amazingly enough, some famous couples have taken their gripes about one another public after their relationship has fallen apart. In the case of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, however, they both have lavished praise on one another in the years since their breakup. More importantly, the compliments they send one another’s way seem to be completely sincere as they appear to root for one another at every turn.

In Jennifer Lopez’s 2014 memoir “True Love” was released in 2014, she wrote about how much breaking up with Ben Affleck devastated her. “It felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest”. Lopez then went on to reveal that the split was so hard on her because of how much she adores Affleck. “'I'd probably say that he is brilliantly smart, loving, charming, affectionate. And I just admire him in every way. I respect him. I feel like he teaches me things.”

For his part, Ben Affleck has sung the praises of Jennifer Lopez at several points over the years. For example, during an early-2020 New York Times interview, Affleck talked about Lopez in glowing terms, especially when it comes to her performance in the movie Hustlers. “She should have been nominated. She’s the real thing. I keep in touch periodically with her and have a lot of respect for her. How awesome is it that she had her biggest hit movie at 50? That’s f–king baller.”

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