Ben Affleck offered a rare public nod to ex-wife Jennifer Lopez, telling Variety he holds enormous respect for her abilities long after their split.
The 54-year-old actor and two-time Oscar winner spoke in a Wednesday interview about Lopez’s work and the subjective nature of Hollywood prizes. Page Six reported his remarks after Variety asked why the pop star and actress often gets overlooked in the industry.
Affleck did not dodge the question. He owned his bias and put the focus on her skill.
“I’m biased. I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what she can do,” he said.
“I’m biased. I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what she can do,”
Lopez, 57, filed for divorce in August 2024 after two years of marriage. The pair settled the split in January 2025. They have stayed cordial since and have appeared together in public several times.
Affleck also produced Lopez’s movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The two once starred together in the flop “Gigli,” a chapter Hollywood never lets them forget. His latest comments stay on craft and brand-building, not old tabloid drama.
The “Gone Girl” and “Good Will Hunting” star used the same interview to shrug off the industry’s prize culture. Commercial hits, he said, do not always line up with what he values.
“What I’ve found with awards is that sometimes the degree of commercial success for things doesn’t always correlate to my taste,”
He added that the whole process is “a part of this weird, subjective business that people bring a lot of their own stuff to.” Affleck said he does not always think the right person wins the right award.
Then he landed the point with a blunt line about final judgment.
“But guess what? I don’t think you die and go to heaven and God says, ‘This was the actual best picture in 1986,’”
“At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of people voting on movie prizes,” he said.
Affleck turned next to how stars make a living beyond the screen. Artists should earn money, he argued, and the music business already treats side income as normal.
“Artists should be making money. You see it massively in the music business. People, either tacitly or explicitly, are expected to make money elsewhere,”
Social media, he said, is part of that work. He pointed to both of his ex-wives.
“Now you’ve got your social media identity. You work to develop that. I’ve seen both Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Garner do amazing jobs cultivating and accruing value in those spaces,” Affleck said. “Don’t think that’s not real work. I couldn’t do it. What am I going to do, unbox something?”
Garner, his first ex-wife, got the same credit as Lopez for turning personal platforms into actual assets. Affleck framed it as labor, not vanity.
The comments arrive more than a year after the divorce settlement and two years after the marriage ended. Affleck rarely speaks about Lopez in public. When he does, the record shows measured praise for her talent and her business sense rather than score-settling.
Hollywood still chases trophies and gossip. Affleck’s plain talk about respect, real work, and the limits of award-show voting cuts against that noise.
