Ben Affleck heads to the Congo
Ben Affleck is expanding his horizons–literally. The actor has signed up to join Nightline as a special correspondent reporting on the humanitarian crisis in the Congo.
Affleck,35, who’s first essay airs Thursday on ABC, took a Nightline crew into Africa with the goal of spreading the word on a story that gets relatively little notice in the U.S.
”It’s fairly clear that in the modern age that there is a currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency, really,” Affleck said on Wednesday. ”I’ve discovered that you can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.”
Affleck, who is married to Jennifer Garner and is father to the couple’s 2-year old daugther Violet, has been to the Congo three times in the past year. He said his motive was to learn about the war and hunger that have killed thousands of people per month in the past decade in hopes that the outside world would be moved to help, and his celebrity opened some doors.
His representatives approached Nightline with the idea of reporting on his journey. Affleck said he was impressed by Nightline stories in 2005 where Hotel Rwanda actor Don Cheadle visited that country.
In his first essay, Affleck says, ”I want to try to bring people along to learn and if they might not tune into this unless there was some celebrity involved in it, either because they’re interested in the celebrity or because they want to see the celebrity kind of make a fool of himself, then so be it.”
He doesn’t act as a reporter, Nightline executive producer James Goldston says, but rather presents the story as a personal journey, following Affleck as he met with survivors of the conflict, relief officials and even some warlords.
”I was quite persuaded by how candid he was about the cliche of it, or the potential cliche,” Goldston said
WENN
June 26th, 2008 at 6:54 am
I used to get annoyed when celebrities would try to cram their agendas down our throats BUT when an actor is truly passionate about a cause..then I’m okay with it. I guess I don’t like the “spokesperson” type “roles” they play. But I do like when THEY are the ones who want to bring us a story/situation, etc. I’m not explaining myself very well. It’s early. LOL
June 26th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Looks like the rumours about him splitting with Jennifer Gerner are true, then. Anyone that spends that much time away from home, even without a young wife and daughter, has got to WANT to stay away.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I think they SHOULD use their celebrity as a platform. That is how they can give back and do something worthwhile. Add him to the list along with George Clooney and Brad Pitt of those who are trying to help make the world a better place and have the power and money to do it.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:26 am
CL and Blondey,
I respect that you two aren’t jumping on the bandwagon that they’re merely doing it to gain publicity. I hate it when people gripe about celebs bringing attention to real world issues by calling the celeb a “famewhore”.
These same folks that throw out these insults are the same ones that won’t do anything to help their fellow man. But they can armchair quarterback the efforts of someone in a position to do something that is willing to act and use this “currency” that they have.
Kudos to Ben and the rest of the celebs making a real contribution to the plight of men women and children world-wide.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I just feel like Ben Affleck is just relevant anymore. Had he done this back in 2005 it would have been huge. Will people really tune in to see Ben Affleck’s person journey through Africa??? But I commend him for doing this because this is an important story to tell.