Kevin Smith has apologized for sharing an old remark Ben Affleck made about filming a same-sex kiss during the 1997 film, “Chasing Amy.”
While speaking at Outfest in Los Angeles over the weekend, Smith recalled Affleck saying kissing another man is an actor’s “greatest” challenge and made him a “serious actor.”
Many were offended by the alleged comments including Evan Rachel Wood who sent a series of tweets slamming Affleck.
“Try getting raped in a scene, Also, grow up Ben,” Wood tweeted.
In an 11-minute Facebook Live video, Smith apologized for rehashing the story and said the comment was said in private. He also attributed the nature of the conversation to age. At the time, Affleck was 23 and Smith, who directed the film, was 26.
“Of course, Affleck doesn’t feel that way today and who knows if he even felt that way then? But he could’ve, he was in his 20s. We all say goofy s— in our f—ing 20s,” Smith says. “But it wasn’t something he went out into the world and talked about. It was something he said to me.”
“My intention in telling that story was good,’ Smith added. “It was not even a ‘Look how far we’ve come,’ although that’s in there. It was just like kids in their 20s, right. It was something that was said literally 21 years ago and not in the context of like homophobic or anything like that. It was just a different world and [the story] was adorable.”
Smith went on to apologize to Wood saying, “Please, someone tell Evan Rachel Wood for me, my apologies. She’s mad at something that I said and I didn’t even say that, I mean, it was out of context and stuff like that.”
The director also apologized to Affleck and says the two don’t speak anymore but he feels “terrible” that the story was taken out of context.
“Whenever people ask me, ‘Hey, how’s Ben.’ I put it out in the press, I’m like, ‘I haven’t spoken to him in years,’” Smith says. “So I don’t pretend to a relationship we don’t have any more or anything, but fu*k do I feel terrible.”
