Ben Affleck dishes on the making of ‘Baby’

LOS ANGELES - He’s best known for his acting roles, but Ben Affleck is quickly earning hearty praise for his newest job venture — stepping behind the camera as the director of “Gone Baby Gone.”

Though the movie, due in theaters Oct. 19, marks Affleck’s first time as a feature film director, the crime drama is receiving remarkable reviews. The Hollywood Reporter, in particular, wrote “Gone Baby Gone,” “[is] going to be remembered as one of the best crime movies of this decade.”

So how does Affleck feel about such lofty praise?

“Well you know, there [are] a lot of ways to go when the movie actually comes out,” a bashful Affleck told Access Hollywood at Monday’s Hollywood premiere. “I’m just trying to take it one step at a time. We [have] got a long way to go to try to get folks to see the movie.”

Affleck told Access that “Gone Baby Gone,” which follows an investigator (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) as they track the disappearance of a child, is a riveting story.

Though he wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard, Affleck told Access the credit belongs to “Gone Baby Gone’s” original author.

“[The movie offers] an incredible story. It has some really spectacular twists, which are compelling and surprising. You will never have seen them coming,” Affleck enthused. “It is very smart, not due to me or anything I did, but based on a very compelling novel by Dennis Lehane, who wrote ‘Mystic River.’”

Affleck said his nerves have intensified thanks to the movie’s impending release. He told Access Hollywood that he plans to calm them by heading to New York, where his wife, Jennifer Garner, is prepping for a play.

“It’s my first time as director and I really love this movie,” he said. “When the movie actually does open on the 19th of October, Jennifer – I will be with her in New York. She can offset some of my stress.”

In fact, Affleck said if he were in Jen’s shoes, the thought of gearing up to play Roxanne in “Cyrano de Bergerac” alongside Kevin Klein, would be scarier than his role as “Gone’s” director.

“It seems terrifying to me,” he said of Jen’s upcoming stage debut. “She is working very hard.”

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