Ben Affleck is opening up about the loss of both of his parents, Timothy Affleck and Chris Anne Affleck, for the first time.
The 54-year-old actor discussed his parents’ deaths during Wednesday’s episode of Kerry Washington’s “Street You Grew Up On” podcast. Affleck and Washington co-star in the upcoming film “Animals.”
Affleck Opens Up About Their Passing
“My parents just died, both of them. In April and June,” Ben told Washington. “So I’ve been just like, you know, not just now or anything, but it’s just sort of a big thing.”
Chris Anne died June 2 at age 83 following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Timothy died at age 76.
His death was publicly confirmed by his other son, Casey Affleck, earlier this month during a press conference at the Venice International Film Festival.
“It’s dedicated to my parents because I lost both my mom and my dad this year, and they were very important to me,” Casey said at the time, referring to his film “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.” “I really wanted to show this movie to them, and I didn’t get to. I think they would have liked it.”
During his conversation with Washington, Ben reflected on how losing his parents has changed the way he views his childhood and, particularly, his mother.
“It’s caused me to start thinking about my own childhood in ways that have been a little bit different,” he said.
Affleck said his mother’s death made him “even more deeply appreciate my mom and really value and see what she did and what the sacrifice and commitment that she made and how complete it was.”
Chris Anne worked as a public school teacher for 35 years before retiring in 2008.
Affleck Found Old Letters His Mom Wrote
After her death, Affleck said he read letters she had written to her own parents when she was younger. The letters offered him a glimpse into a side of his mother he had never known.
“First off, it’s this young woman, full of life and ambition and dreams,” he said, recalling that she wrote about wanting to become a teacher and traveling to Mississippi for protests.
“It was really fascinating,” he continued. “But of course, the thing that struck me was this has nothing to do with me. This woman had her own whole life for 30 years that had zero to do with me.”
Affleck said he had primarily known his mother as someone who “made me and my brother the absolute most important center of her life.”
Reading her letters, however, helped him understand her as an individual with her own ambitions and passions.
“She was, I mean, gorgeous and smart and thoughtful and passionate. I just thought this woman’s amazing and she could do anything,” he said, adding, “She worked really hard, and she came home and did everything.”
The “Gone Girl” star acknowledged that he had “taken for granted” everything his mother did for him and Casey.
“Probably in a way that she wants, in a way I want my children to take for granted,” he said. “She did that so thoroughly and effectively over her whole life, that I didn’t even see her in a way as her own whole person apart from me. And it blew me away.”
Chris Anne and Timothy married in the early 1970s and divorced in 1984, when Ben and Casey were preteens.
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Ben Affleck Opens Up About Losing Both Parents