Friday 7th February 2003: Daredevil Update:
Just received a transcript of a International Press Conference that was held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Pasadena on the 2nd of February. Cast who attended were BEN AFFLECK, COLIN FARRELL, JENNIFER GARNER

Q: Why do life lessons seem to come from the world of comics
rather than fairy tales nowadays? Do young people find them more
accessible?
BEN: I'm trying to think what the fairy tale lesson is in this movie
and it must be, Don't trust Irish people (joke about COLIN FARRELL, he
answers ?). I think there's a tradition of telling stories on a kind
of apocryphal operatic scale, good versus evil, that sort of thing,
starting with cavemen drawing through Sisyphus, Hercules, and on to
Beowulf. They're kind of like knights and dragons, and I think this is
sort of the modern equivalent of that. I don't know what it is that
people seem to be interested in. Look LORD OF THE RINGS is like a
fantasy storytelling, it's kind of engaging, and particularly now that,
with the budgets and skilled outlets of all the technicians in
Hollywood, you can create these world visually, these fantasy
environments. And it's the perfect setting for them, it's convincing
and it's a wonderful escapist fairy tale environment.

Q: What kind of thought process do you have to go through as an actor
to make it real, play a guy who goes out to seek vengeance and is
putting on a costume to do it?
BEN: For Colin I don't think it was very far afield, but for me it was
a bit of a stretch (laughter, COLIN interjects). I think that you just
have to suspend your disbelief and convince yourself that... Actually
one of the reasons why I think it was good that SPIDER-MAN came out and
was so successful before this movie, because it helps to sort of
indoctrinate people into accepting the fact that there is a world where
people put on costumes and tend to go out at night. And in particular
this movie, which doesn't do a lot of winking at the audience, it has
this dual tone, one is this sort of comic book operatic scale universe,
and the other is that the movie asks you to really invest in these
characters, to take them seriously, and so it really doesn't work if
you don't do that as an actor. So you have to just commit to it
wholeheartedly. Luckily I had read the comic book for so many years,
it didn't seem that outrageous to me, I thought, he puts on a red suit,
he goes out, I know this guy, when I was a kid I kind of thought it was
real, so I probably started ahead of the game in term of...
acting-wise, because I was totally familiar with the comic book

Q: The film is pretty violent. Aren't you afraid that kids may try to
imitate what you have done in the movie?
BEN: No, for one thing I think there are consequences to the violence
in this movie, this guy gets stabbed, people age, people die, and it's
sad, it's not random, wanton, consequenceless violence, as opposed to
something where people kind of fall..., like in a videogame violence
where you can get hit and you never really die and you have nine lives.
All I can tell you is that as a kid I watched...I loved The
Roadwarrior, my favorite movie, and I understood full well at the age
of 9 that I wasn't going to be humongous and shoot people with
shotguns, that that was fantasy, and there's a difference between
fantasy and reality. And so I trust that the parents will tell the
kids that. This is not a movie for a 4, 5, 6-years-old kids, I mean,
they'll just have nightmares, but I started being involved and
interested in this kind of stuff when I was 8 and 9 and I think that it
is appropriate.

Q: How did you prepare to play a blind man ?
BEN: There's a couple of answers to that question. One, I worked with
this guy call Tom Sullivan who's blind and with whom I sat down and
spent some time and asked him about how he used the other sense to
compensate for not being able to see, how it changed his carriage, the
way he held his head, so on and so forth. However the difference
between this and playing somebody who's blind without superpowers is
that he's blind kind of optically speaking but he actually is aware of
is surroundings by using this kind of sonar sense. So it was tricky, a
lot of times he's kind of behaving more helpless than he really is.
The other thing I did was that I had the contacts that were built for
me to sort of look like eye scars, built so they were opaque, so I
really couldn't see. So I was able to just forget about that, it
wasn't an issue, I didn't have to worry about acting blind because I
couldn't see anything, it meant that my larger worries were not bumping
into the furniture.

Q: Could each of you talk about your relationship to superheroes
when you grew up and if you could pick any superpower which one would
it be?
COLIN: Me and Wonderwoman had a fling for about 2 weeks when I was 14
I never grew up with...I never heard of Daredevil until I was
aware of the obvious things like Spiderman and Superman from TV shows,
and Batman was Adam West but it didn't take a long time for me to
establish that there was an amazing following out there for Daredevil
especially
JENNIFER: I grew up... I was one of 3 girls, so we were much more into
'Anne of Green Gables' than comic books, and I was completely unaware.
But I wish that I'd had Elektra as a role model growing up because she
is every man's equal and I think she is very empowering for young women.
BEN: Yeah, I was really into the comic books, it was a little nervier
than everyone else, evidently, but what superpower I'd like to have,
it's hard to say.
JENNIFER: I'd go for metabolism.

Q: What exactly did you do workout-wise to beat Ben
JENNIFER: That was easy (laughter). I'd had a year of ALIAS fight
every couple of days, so I came in probably more confident than Ben,
but the annoying thing was how quickly he caught up. I was a little
bit cocky after the first couple of days and then all of a sudden he
was kind of crushing me and that was a problem. But, yeah, I was a
ballet dancer growing up and then I trained for ALIAS and fought
constantly all year and really wanted to do DAREDEVIL because I knew
that it would be... it would kind of force me to train that much harder
and take another step in this world of fighting action.
Q: How many hours a day did you train and what exactly did you do?
JENNIFER: On ALIAS I trained fight by fight and would just try to keep
in good enough shape that I could do anything they threw at me, and
training for DAREDEVIL, of course, I had to learn to use Elektra's
weapons, which were the sais, the three-pronged swords that were either
originally from farming implements or , I heard both things.
Anyway, this guy named Don Lee, who is 21 and a martial arts sai
champion of the country, would come and hang out on the ALIAS set and
teach me drills and teach me how to use that during lunch or 5 minutes
breaks here and there and come to my house on Sunday and just kind of
choreograph fights for me to learn the basics of using the sai. And
other than that I just got there and Ben and I then rehearsed with the
Hong Kong wire team lead by master Cheung Yan for hours every day.

Paula: What was the most difficult sequence to shoot?
BEN: The playground fight because we had to include this teeter-totter
thing, landing on that, the wires. It just gets painful after a while
hanging u in the air like that, but we did a lot of rehearsal and
everybody else seemed pretty comfortable with it, so made me feel I got
better, got my shit together.

Q: I wonder if each of the actors could say something that
happened between them and either their mother or their father that
influenced the choices that they made.
BEN: My father was a staggering falling-down drunk, I decided not to go
that way.
COLIN: After being one.
BEN: It took me
JENNIFER: My mother... after college... I had spent every summer doing
some schlock movie , the whole time saying, I'm going to law school,
I'm going go be a doctor or trying to avoid the fact that I was so
impassioned by learning how to act. And when I finished college and
was thinking about al these different options for graduate school, my
mom said, Jen, just go to New York, you're ready, you've trained your
whole life, go. And that's kind of the opposite from what you'd expect
from my mom.
COLIN: My mom as well always instilled to me to do whatever you want,
as long you don't hurt anyone, as long as you're happy, do whatever you
want in life, reach for whatever you want to reach for, say whatever
you feel, whatever's on your mind at any given time, of course.
whatever makes you tick, so something that I'm aware of every day.
BEN: I love my mother too

Q: For Jennifer and Ben, if you could address the nature of the
love story, which is an important theme of the movie, as well as the
refusal to commit violence after violence. It seems that these two
people get together because they have shared something on common, a
tragedy in their past, if you could relate to that personally.
BEN: I was a little worried that people wouldn't get all that from the
movie, but I'm glad that you did. You make a good point that the love
story really is the heart of movie and it's kind of like the
transforming power of love in the way that changes this character and
he decides to...recognizes that he's been vengeful really and
vindictive of violence, and doesn't want to do that now that he meets
somebody that he really falls in love with. I think the love story
kind of anchors the movie in a great way, and i couldn't possibly have
had anybody to play it with than lovely and talented Jennifer Garner.
JENNIFER: I love the idea that these two people recognized each
other's handicaps, her emotional handicap and his emotional and obvious
physical handicap, and respect what they've had to go through and how
disciplined they had to be able to do what they can do, and I love that
they fall in love out of a mutual respect and a mutual admiration for
each other, as well as just an attraction.
Q: But is that something you can relate to in your own life?
JENNIFER: Ben?
BEN: Yeah, sure, you know, for me it's not exactly as though I'm going
to try and do this inside, okay, what exactly is this like in my real
life, but rather just try to look realistically to the imagined
circumstances of the movie, and in that way it was very easy for me to
imagine this because it was so clearly drawn out and so well played
by Jennifer. So, yeah, I think people fall in love for mysterious,
unknowable reasons and sometimes trying to distill that down to all the
exact things is frustrating for me, it's easier to try to play the
honesty of the emotions scene by scene.

Q: Ben, what are you doing on Valentine's day?
BEN: You mean, you aren't going to hang out? I thought I was going to
come over. I guess I'm going to have to look for something else to do
now. I don't know, I guess I'm going to be in New York working on
promoting this movie, so it will be a working holiday for me. I think
on Valentine's day, is it Friday or Saturday, Friday, I don't know,
maybe i'll be rehearsing, I'm going to try and sneak out and see
Jennifer's Saturday Night Live thing, make an appearance, if I could
find the time.

Q: The world of comic books is like a bible to the fans, you're
not allowed to venture beyond that, and yet, if I'm not mistaken,
Kingpin was white. how faithful do you have to maintain to the
original source?

Q: Ben, you play a blind guy in the movie and you're attracted to
this Jennifer because of her scent, what attracts you in women, what
attracted you to your present fiance`.
BEN: I think what attractive, interestingly enough, about Jennifer's
character and about Jennifer Garner in the movie is not just the scent,
it's the person, and being blind is an interesting thing because you
take away all visual things. it's an interesting, would you be
attracted to different people if you were blind, would you have
different criteria? And yes, she's supposed to smell beautiful and
everything, but it's really about the fact... I'm sure she does in real
life, he's supposed being attracted to her personality, her soul, the
essence of her. And I think that's not exactly hit on the head in the
movie, but it's kind of obliquely referenced, when she says, I wish you
could see me tonight, the idea of course is that she knows that he
can't see her really and see how she looks. And probably I imagine
that it would give you a whole...it would be a pretty impressive thing
to have a person fall in love with you because you would know that they
really loved the essence of who you were. So much of what we think of
as physical beauty is on the sole visual and I thought that was one of
the really nice beautiful things about tis relationship in the comic
book and we carry it over to the movie, the idea of being attracted to
someone who
Q: As is that the case with you and Jennifer?
BEN: Yeah, that's the case.

Q: How did you prepare to play Bullseye?
COLIN: I growled, I snarled, I sniffed, I used every trick in the book,
it was all smoke and mirrors what I did.
There was nothing I could do, I mean, I couldn't really walk around
Santa Monica killing people , and I can't stand on the back of a
motorbike going 40 at miles an hours. I worked with a magic guy, I was
doing THE RECRUIT up in Toronto and the good people with DAREDEVIL
decided to get me a magician, and he'd come on to my set at lunch
break, and I'd sit in my chair and he'd stand in front of me and do a
trick. And he gave me a tape of his tricks just to get a little slight
of hand depth to the card trick and all that. I didn't have to work
with a dialect coach, thank God, for once , I just worked with Jeff
, he's a great stunt coordinator and they were brilliant.
For me it was fairly straight forward, just to have a good time and
just enjoy to this insane assassin.

Q: Jennifer, forget for a moment you're married, do these
superheroes melt your heart? Colin and Ben, do you feel attracted to
girl that are strong or rather the damsel in distress so yo can be a
hero for them?
JENNIFER: If I were not married, it seems to me that dating a superhero
would be a hassle, they leave in the middle of the night, they have
these powers, they have lot of scars, there's a lot of baggage that
goes along with the superhero, so I think I'll just stay where I am.
BEN: Yes, women that are strong are really attractive and confident and
independent and powerful, I think that's extremely attractive, which
explains the towering, overpowering popularity oh Jen Garner, for
example, who's got that image that's out there, it's very appealing. I
think men increasingly like... i think the damsel in distress in a way
is kind of reductive of women, and it's also for a modern man probably
less interesting, because you can't really have a conversation with a
damsel in distress, it's be just like (screams), after a while I'd
probably

Q: What do you like about Colin?
BEN: I love Colin, I love him, I don't know, it's hard to say, he's
sexy. Also he's a very charming, open, honest guy, I get along better
with people who are accessible and open, rather than... I think there's
something really people who are really guarded. I'd like to think
I'm not that kind of guy. You know, Colin is who I want to be
reincarnated as.
COLIN: I want to be reincarnated as a human
BEN: Have you asked Colin about Britney Spears?

Q: How do you feel about all the media attention?
BEN: I think unfortunately it does you a disservice as an actor
because what happens is that people get accustomed to seeing you one
way, whether it's Access Hollywood or whatever it is in the national
tabloid press, magazines, so it becomes more difficult for them to have
suspended disbelief in terms of believing you as another character.
Where it may take people a few minutes to get over watching after
two minutes of the movie I'm totally wrapped up in somebody else, if
you have to much tabloid baggage, it may take audiences 15 minutes to
stop, to get this other image out of their head. So it's unfortunate
as an actor, but it doesn't appear to be something that I have a whole
lot of control over, so.

Q: Is justice all about revenge?
BEN: You picked up on that as a theme in the movie. I think what
happens in the course of the movie is that this character sort of
discovers the difference between vengeance and justice and learns to
value mercy a little bit more, and he goes from being vengeful to be a
more just guy, largely through the process of falling in love with tis
woman and seeing what happens to her and seeing how she kind of changes
when she loses somebody that she loves and goes through the same
experience that he had child. He's also not the bad guy

Q: I wanted to ask Ben something that Mark referred to and is on
everybody's mind these days, what is happening in the news, if you
personally or this movie has a message that, in order not to be the bad
guy, maybe you should find a difference way to answer to violence in
the world.
BEN. Yeah, that's kind of the theme of this movie in a way that
violence isn't always the answer, it's oftentimes the first instinct
but probably not the healthiest first response and it doesn't really
solve problems. As he says to Elektra in the graveyard, something
along the lines, it doesn't make it better, it won't make the pain go
away. I think all sentient compassionate people understand that
violence is and should be last resort, and that only when all other
avenues of negotiations and conflict resolution have been exhausted,
it's even acceptable to contemplate. And I know it's an issue that's
obviously very present today, on everybody's mind here and abroad, and
in that way I think the movie has a good message, although it's almost
awkward to talk about an issue that's so much larger than a movie and
so much more serious.
JENNIFER: What I love about the movie and yo can take away from it is
that this character isn't trying to save the world in a huge way, he's
compelled to prevent a small child from being beaten or a woman from
being raped, he's trying to help people in his ten block radius or
whatever it is, it's very much what's in front of you and what can you
do to stop the small or large injustices that are happening right in
front of your own eyes.

Q: Real life couple have often not helped the publicity for the
movie. Are you worried?
BEN: I actually think that when movies work, they work, DAYS OF THUNDER
or whatever, it just depend whether the movie is good or not, and that
really is what's important and then ultimately people kind of forget
that other stuff. I don't know if people ar e worried and if they are
they don't tell me. I love JERSEY GIRL, I'm really excited about that,
I think it's a good movie, so I'm going to count on that and let the
chips fall where they may.

Q: How comfortable were the costumes?
JENNIFER: I went every Saturday to fittings for several hours, but it
was really important that, as tight as my wardrobe was, that I would be
able to move and kick and be free. Elektra wears different costumes,
the one that she's known for is this red kind of sashy thing that, as
far as I can tell, she doesn't wear anything under, and the one that's
not as well known is one that's very similar to what I end up in, and
I'm so grateful to Mark for choosing this other look. For me, if I
hadn't been covered up at all, I would have... Luckily for me Ben was
completely covered up, so if I stabbed him with sai or whatever, I
wasn't going to hurt him. If I had had just skin everywhere, I would
have been one big road rash. But it was pretty comfortable, it took
about half an hour to get into that stuff.
COLIN: Bullseye wears blue tights on his body and I didn't think
transferred well on film, not that I had any say about it, tattoos
Bullseye ballet dancer. Fortunately they gave me a cup, which didn't
make me feel too good about myself.
BEN: Well you didn't look good without it.
COLIN: James Acheson who did the wardrobe is an amazing wardrobe
designer, so passionate about what he does.
Mark definitely wants to go down a road of Bullseye being a little more
rock and roll than wearing blue tights, so we just figured it out, and
the long reptilian trench coat was something that we knew we wanted
early on for the fight scenes with the latitude to share blows,
kicking in the face, which I enjoyed doing. Originally his head piece
a white eye painted on this material, and it was Mark's idea to
have that Bullseye branded in to his forehead in a moment of
insanity.
It was the case of the wardrobe makes the man, you just put that
shit on and you start on the set growling, moving a certain way.
BEN: I think it was Michael Keaton who told the story that Nicholson
told him, let the suit do most of the acting as Batman. A lot of that
is true for me, just putting on the thing, first of all you can hardly
tell it's me, second of all, it does do a lot of that kind of work for
you, just standing the in the outfit, you sort of look and feel more
like a superhero than you do otherwise, so . I was really happy
with the suit because it was very close to what the comic book
iconography was that I was used to, so that was great.

Q: How adamant are you about succeeding?
COLIN: There's a life's difference between ambition and passion, I
think I'm a passionate I never saw myself as ambitious, which sound
so contrary probably to what you think, because I've had obviously
success, I've been lucky considering where I come from, I found an
enormous amount of success in the last years but I never saw myself
as ambitious, just passionate about what I do and I'm lucky to have a
job that's very easy to get passionate about because I love it so much.

Q: When have you ever been a daredevil?
COLIN: I'm a nervous flyer, I hate flying, and I took a flying lesson
in a two-seater Cessna over Dublin about two years ago kill me, and
I'm not doing that again.
JENNIFER: With three girls, somebody had to step up to the plate and
kill the spiders and take on whatever job normally goes to the boy in
the family, and that fell on my shoulders, so that, particularly when
we were sailing as a family, if a storm came up, everybody would go
down below, and dad and I would stay out and weather the storm. That's
my daredevil moment.
BEN: That's a nice one.
JENNIFER: Wasn't that sweet? I love my dad.
BEN: I've never had anything particularly daring really. I guess I was
a little bit more reckless and less aware of in the world at one
time than I am now, but I've never been accused of being a daredevil,
I'm the man with fear.