No one will ever quite forget the golden age of the early noughts; double denim, Juicy Couture tracksuits and Ben Affleck‘s engagement to Jennifer Lopez. This month for the May cover of InStyle starring Lopez, a number of celebrities reflected on the formidable actress and artist including Affleck who gushed about her work ethic.
“I thought I had a good work ethic, but I was completely humbled and blown away by what she was committed to doing day in and day out, the seriousness in which she took her work, the quiet and dedicated way she went about accomplishing her goals, and then how she would go back and redouble her efforts,” Affleck said of Lopez.
“She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business. She has great talent, but she has also worked very hard for her success, and I’m so happy for her that she seems, at long last, to be getting the credit she deserves.”
Affleck continued, commenting on Lopez’s Benjamin Button approach to ageing.
“Where are you keeping the fountain of youth? Why do you look the same as you did in 2003 and it kind of looks like I’m in my 40s…at best?”
Lopez and Affleck began dating after meeting on the set of the 2002 film Gigli. By November, the couple were engaged and due to be married the following year in September. While the wedding was ultimately cancelled due to excessive media attention, Affleck then called off the engagement in January 2004.
It’s not the first time Affleck has spoken so highly of the “Jenny From The Block” star.
In January 2021, the 48-year-old looked back at his very public split from the artist and admitted a lot of the attention was very negative.
“People were so f***ing mean about her — sexist, racist,” Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter. “Ugly, vicious sh*t was written about her in ways that if you wrote it now you would literally be fired for saying those things you said. Now it’s like, she’s lionised and respected for the work she did, where she came from, what she accomplished — as well she f***ing should be!”
The likes of Michelle Obama, Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey were also interviewed for the new cover story.
