Ryan's Hope Part Two

By: Michael Tunison
Date: Tuesday, June 04, 2002

In part one of CINESCAPE's Ben Affleck profile, the actor discussed the daunting prospect of picking up the Jack Ryan franchise where Harrison Ford left off. In part two, he talks about meeting Tom Clancy, America's real-life terrorism fears and the possibility of returning as Ryan in a future film.

Before Affleck's CIA newbie version of Jack Ryan could be realized, he had to jump through one very important hoop: a meeting with Clancy, who has been allowed an unofficial veto power over who plays his most famous creation. Grinning widely at the memory, Affleck recalls the visit he paid to the famously blunt-speaking author.

"Tom is a very straight-shooting kind of guy. The discussions were sort of along the lines of, 'So, you want to play Jack Ryan, huh!' And I appreciated that. He's direct, he's no bulls**t, he's extremely smart. I don't always agree with his politics, but I always find there are very smart reasons why he feels the way he does, so I respect him. I respect him because he's a guy who's passionate and who listens, who really knows what he's talking about. So most of the discussions were about me telling him how much I like the books, how I wanted to play it, saying how I would do it, and him listening and thinking about it. Fortunately for me, he ultimately decided that, 'I think you'd be great, kid!'"

Once such formalities were out of the way and director Phil Alden Robinson (FIELD OF DREAMS) and screenwriter Daniel Pyne (THE FIRM) were brought on board to rework the project for a younger Ryan, Affleck dug into the actual work of creating his take on the character. He visited the CIA department where Ryan starts his Agency career, the Russia desk, which Affleck describes as "kind of like the graduate department of Russian studies at George Washington University - it's a very academic environment." While he immediately felt comfortable in this setting, phonetically learning the bits of Russian dialogue he needed to speak for the film didn't come so easily.

"It was really hard to do," Affleck says with a laugh. "Because it's not a Romance language or any language I'm kind of familiar with at all, it just sounds like caveman-speak to me. They had these big, like, HOOKED ON PHONICS pages, and I had to sort of memorize it that way. And I tell you what - I really don't have an aptitude for speaking Russian. I don't think there's any prospect of my being offered a job as a translator in the near future."


SUM OF ALL FEARS' frightening depiction of terrorism on U.S. soil, while written and shot pre-Sept. 11, nonetheless bears some eerie resemblances to the real-life attacks on New York City and the Pentagon last fall. For Affleck, events that have occurred since the film wrapped certainly have changed the way the drama will play for audiences. In a strange twist of fate, they also may have removed what he saw as a potential obstacle to viewers accepting the story's premise.

"Unequivocally [the film] has a different resonance," Affleck says. "We went and made a movie that was an escapist political thriller, where we thought the big hurdle in terms of promoting the movie would be to get people to not say, 'Oh, this is too far-fetched. This would never happen.' Now, tragically, that's not an issue at all."

As for his own real-life fears in a world changed by Sept. 11, Affleck is quick to scoff at the idea that he might be in special danger due to his fame as an actor.

"I don't think so," he says. "I don't think Osama bin Laden is particularly worried about, like, me or Clooney, you know what I mean? I think celebrities who think they're gonna be a more likely target of terrorists are truly flattering themselves."

While Affleck clearly enjoyed his run as Ryan, he hasn't formally committed to taking on the role a second time should the producers choose to follow up SUM with another installment in a similar vein (perhaps an adaptation of Clancy's upcoming RED RABBIT, which is said to be an '80s-set prequel featuring a young Ryan?).

"I haven't signed for any more, no," Affleck says. "The reality is - like any movie Hollywood's basically success-driven. If the movie does well, if people go see it, then they'll want to do another one. If it doesn't, it's like, 'Why, Lord, why did we go with Affleck?'"

Indeed, the latest actor to play Jack Ryan admits to feeling a certain amount of pressure as SUM's release date approached. Considering that all three of the previous films in the series have been successful, he certainly wouldn't want the first flop to come on his watch.

"Sure, sure I'd hate to be the guy who screwed up the Jack Ryan franchise, because they'll put that on my tombstone," he cracks. "Clancy fans will come and, like, throw tomatoes at my grave: 'You assf**k, you buried us!'"

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at feedback@cinescape.com.