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American Morning
Showbiz Today Reports: Ben Affleck Discusses New Disney Movie, 'Pearl Harbor'
Aired May 21, 2001 - 11:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's time for a little showbiz action.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Showbiz time means Laurin Sydney, and that means New York City.
Hello -- Laurin.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Hello, everybody.
We have a lot of action today because it's anchors away in Hawaii tonight as Disney unveils its summer blockbuster "Pearl Harbor." The studio is actually spending $5 million on the premiere of the World War II epic aboard a Navy aircraft carrier.
Its red-hot star Ben Affleck will, of course, be in attendance. The film was a labor of love for the actor.
He sat down with our very own Paul Vercammen over the weekend in Hawaii, to tell us why he was so passionate about this project.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here in Pearl Harbor with Ben Affleck.
First off, why do you think this is an important movie for a lot of people to see?
BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR: I think it's important to know how terrible a thing war is, how much suffering is involved, how gruesome the Second World War was, how real the sacrifices were that were made by that generation, and that we ought never to have to fight a war like that ever again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: In this Pearl Harbor story, you play a young pilot. What makes this guy tick?
AFFLECK: He's one of these guys who's just always wanted to fly, always wanted to be a pilot. That's just sort of his dream. He's a farm kid from Tennessee, and that's his great passion. His dad taught him how to fly at a very early age, and so he enlists in the Army Air Corps, not out of any sense of patriotism or whatever -- we weren't at war -- he just wanted to fly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AFFLECK: I know why I'm here: to be a pilot. And you don't dogfight with manuals. You don't fly with gauges. It's all about feeling and speed and letting that plane become like a part of your body. And that manual says if a guy's a slow reader, he can't be a good pilot -- that file says I'm the best pilot in this room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
And as he starts to get older, you know, time is running out; you were like an old man once you hit about 25, in the Air Corps. It was very much a young man's deal. He's running out of patience with American isolationism to the war, so he runs off and joins the Eagle Squadron in Great Britain because they were accepting foreign pilots to fly and fight what ultimately became the Battle of Britain.
VERCAMMEN: What was the toughest scene for you to shoot?
AFFLECK: Probably some of the most difficult things for me acting-wise were just anything where you were by yourself. We were very fortunate to have the real stuff around. I wasn't looking at a green screen and pretending, there was a velociraptor there. You know what I mean? It's just a benefit, as an actor; it's just a plus. We had the planes. We had the ships. Michael Bay creates very realistic circumstances in which to act.
So the toughest stuff, I would say, would probably be some of the process pilot stuff, where I'm sitting in a parking lot at Disney with a half-shell plastic thing over my head and a stick that was kind of jury-rigged onto a pole, and I had to act as though I was afraid for my life.
VERCAMMEN: But Bay likes to physically torture you, as he has in the past.
AFFLECK: He likes to -- that may be a little strong -- but yes, he does, he likes to make the experience a physical workout. I mean, he's like, He's got to be more messed-up looking, he's got to be sweatier, he's got to be more beat up and he's got to -- and so we had this plane rig that spun around, and he got enormous pleasure out of spinning that around, winging it all over the place.
VERCAMMEN: For anybody who thinks this is just bombs bursting in air, this is also a love story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AFFLECK: Emily! Emily!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Yes -- in fact, that's the central driving story of this movie, these young people, their life experiences and their relationships with one another. And we sort of represent America as it went through this process of turning its head around and getting itself into the Second World War.
VERCAMMEN: Ben, we thank you so much for taking some time out.
AFFLECK: As always, it's a pleasure.
VERCAMMEN: Good luck.
AFFLECK: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYDNEY: Now it's anchors away and back to Atlanta with Kyra and Miles. Take it away.
PHILLIPS: Lauren, thanks so much.
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