Ben Affleck has worked with many brilliant actors and actresses throughout his career spanning over 3 decades but has not been intimidated by many of his co-stars. However, things were quite different when the actor was supposed to work alongside an 8-year-old, Raquel Castro in Jersey Girl back in 2004.
The American actor once opened up in an interview about working with Castro in Jersey Girl and revealed that he suspected the director, Kevin Smith set him up for humiliation in a few scenes of the movie.
Ben Affleck felt intimidated by his 8-year-old co-star in Jersey Girl
Once in an interview with Phase 9 Entertainment, Ben Affleck was asked about his experience working with Raquel Castro who portrayed the role of his character’s daughter, Gertie in Jersey Girl, and revealed that he felt intimidated by the young star. The Way Back actor talked about how lucky they were to find a young actress who looked just like Jennifer Lopez, who portrayed the role of Gertie’s mother in the movie. He said,
“I’ve worked with quite a few actresses, and she ranks right up there with ones I’ve been intimidated by! It was kind of scary. First of all she’s so precocious and confident, and seems so together that you think ‘good God, I’m 31 years old and I’m not half as together as you are at 8’. She was brought in because of her striking resemblance to Jennifer, and it was such a stroke of luck that she also turned out to be a really good actress. We got really lucky in that regard. Sometimes movies are about that, getting lucky in the right place at the right time, God is smiling on you. He really did with Raquel. She can hold her own.”
Ben Affleck further revealed that Raquel Castro was so brilliant in Jersey Girl that even the actor felt she was outclassing him.
The Argo star talks about being outclassed by Raquel Castro
Jersey Girl had a significant musical number at the climax of the movie and Ben Affleck is not a fan of musicals as such. In his own words, the actor considers himself to be ‘tone deaf‘ so it was an absolute torture for him. Affleck further revealed that he suspected the director of the movie, Kevin Smith had allegedly set up this scene especially to mock and humiliate him. Talking about the entire musical sequence, Affleck said,
“That was what she[Raquel Castro] was looking forward to the whole time whereas it was the one thing I was dreading. I’m a musical disaster, I’m tone-deaf, so it was excruciating for me to try to sing. And then to be up there singing and dancing – I think Kevin[Smith] wrote it in specifically to humiliate me. And, to make matters worse, Raquel was so adept at it. She was a great little singer and performer. We had to take these little music rehearsals and I was miserably floundering around while she was chirping along hitting all the right notes at the right tempo. So I was there being upstaged and humiliated by an 8-year-old girl.”
Despite having a good storyline, Jersey Girl turned out to be a box office bomb as it only managed to gross almost $36 million against a production budget of $35 million. Ben Affleck and Raquel Castro were appreciated for their portrayal of Oliver and Gertie respectively in the movie. Jersey Girl also went on to receive some mixed reviews from critics.
Jersey Girl is currently streaming on Fubo.
Source: Phase 9 Entertainment
