Is Ben Affleck Hollywoods a real BoJack rider?

HHow did Ben Affleck become a walking coat rack? Maybe it started when he met Jennifer Lopez; their relationship was, after all, the first to deserve a tabloid nickname. (RIPBennifer.) But the play on words didn't stop there. When Affleck married Jennifer Garner a year later, the tabloids tried to mark their union Garfleck. (He never really understood.) When Affleck put on a mask to portray the most famous vigilante in DC, Affleck became Batfleckand when Batman v SupermanThe austere press tour makes him a meme for existential anguish, he turns back into Sadfleck.

Affleck is no stranger to a career downstairs or two, especially thanks to disreputable gossip. But in this new chapter, Affleck was faced with something more serious: allegations of trial and error, which first appeared in 2017. Affleck continues to receive three films this year and counts. But his films also bombed. Especially, Justice League tanked before Affleck leaves his Batman position. Live at night, which Affleck led, also failed.

In profiles, like the one published in February by the New york times, there remains the feeling that Affleck must be forgiven for something. It is not clear whether Affleck or someone else knows what it will take to get there. But as he and his surrogates make their way through this mess, I have to admit that I can't stop thinking about BoJack Horseman.

In his new film The way back, which begins Friday, Affleck plays a basketball coach battling alcoholism. Last October, TMZ captured images of Affleck, who recently celebrated a year of sobriety, drunk after a Halloween party. Affleck used the film press cycle as an opportunity to speak frankly about his struggles with alcohol consumption, as well as his divorce from Garner. But as Time Journalist Brooks Barnes noted in his profile last month that the fate of Afflecks as a star rests in the hands of someone else.

Film buffs, women in particular, will ultimately decide: is forgiveness for transgressions always something that society in all its fied polarization on Twitter allows? Barnes wrote. For some, Affleck is still the guy who broke Garners' heart and was accused of groping talk show host in 2003.

The timing of Afflecks' attempted return seems significant. At this point, years after the #MeToo movement started in Hollywood, the entertainment industry has reached a more nuanced stage of self-examination. Last summer, Aziz Ansari landed a Netflix special that he used, in part, to discuss a #MeToo charge against him. And weeks before Harvey Weinstein was convicted of third degree rape, two of the busiest television finals of the 2020s The right place and BoJack Horsemanfocused on issues of forgiveness and redemption for humanity. In the BoJacks case, the finale focused on the plight of the central horse following a #MeToo allegation and on the type of relationship, if any, that his friends chose to Have with him in the future.

As clear as the comparison may seem at first glance, Affleck and BoJack have a striking amount in common. Affleck, like the fictional horse man, has a family history of mental health and addiction issues. Affleck and BoJack make frequent appearances in the tabloid media. Towards the end of the Netflix series, BoJack moved into a comfortable rehabilitation center named Pastiches; Affleck visited the Promises actual installations several times. The two men have a complicated relationship with the class. And BoJack, like Affleck, has reached a level of fame that guarantees an almost unacceptable amount of power and a lack of responsibility for the carpet to be removed from under when people started to pay attention.

Shortly after allegations of sexual misconduct appeared against Harvey Weinstein, Ben Affleck published a declaration. He said he was angry at Weinsteins' abuse and at the same time avoided mentioning whether or not he had ever heard of one of them. Shortly after, the actress Hilarie Burton accused the actor of having fiddled with it during an episode of MTV TRL. There was a video of the incident. He apologized.

But Burton was not the only woman to move forward at the time; She is simply the only one whose charges have always been asked of Affleck. At the same time, Burton made his claim, makeup artist and writer Annamarie Tendler also accused Affleck of groping her buttocks at a Golden Globes party in 2014. TV writer Jen Starsky said she was at the same party, where several friends had the same experience as Tendler. Investigators often only ask Affleck about Burtons' claim as if it had occurred in solitary confinements, so he never fully explained his behavior.

Following the Weinstein scandal, moviegoers increasingly discussed who, in the orbit of producers, was complicit in his behavior. Actors like Brad Pitt have appeared, as have directors like Quentin Tarantino. The stench that surrounds Affleck comes, in part, from this discussion, because beyond being a Weinstein protg, Affleck seems to have become a part of the machine that helps those who look like him.