Headache "Gone" For Ben Affleck, Oscar-Winning Actor Talks About The Stress Of Directing His First Movie

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2007

Ben Affleck, left, and his brother, Casey, have been promoting the movie across the country. (AP Photo)

(CBS) Directing his first movie took a toll on actor Ben Affleck, sending him to the hospital at one point to seek relief for a migraine headache.

Affleck, whose "Gone Baby Gone" opens today, says he spent so much effort on prep work that he developed a headache during the first week of shooting and ended up in the hospital emergency room on the weekend.

"Inspired a lot of confidence," he told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm Friday, imitating what he thinks was the reaction of his cast. "'Where's the director? To the emergency room? On the weekend?' "

Photos: Ben Affleck
Photos: The Movie Premiere
Photos: "Gone" On The Road

He said he had decided going into the project that "if I was going to fail in any way, it wasn't going to be for lack of working as hard as I possibly could.

"So, I probably worked four times as hard as I needed to, and maybe in some ways that was probably bad, because you get so tight when you work that hard. But I just kept on going and going and hardly slept, probably overprepared."

The 35-year-old Boston native already is garnering rave reviews for the movie, which has generated Oscar buzz since it first premiered. Based on a novel by "Mystic River" author Dennis Lehane, the movie is set in Boston, where Affleck grew up, and depicts a child's kidnapping and the city's reaction to the crime. In it, he draws on his middle-class roots and values and raises what reviewers have said are some tough questions.

The film has been years in the making and was originally seen as a vehicle for Ben Affleck, the actor.

"In '02, when I very first got a hold of it," Affleck said, "I thought I would act in it." But after writing the screenplay with Aaron Stockard, he began to think about directing it.

"But I knew I couldn't direct and act in it at the same time," he said. "I thought it would be too hard. And story-wise, I thought it would be interesting if the character were younger. And as soon as I did that, I thought there was only one person who could play this part, and that was Casey, my brother."

The younger Affleck has been getting good reviews, not only for "Gone Baby Gone" but also for his other endeavor this fall opposite Brad Pitt in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." Since the movie premiered, the brothers have been spending time together on the road, promoting it at special screenings in major cities across the country.

This isn't the first script Affleck has tackled. He won an Academy Award with actor Matt Damon for the screenplay for 1997's "Good Will Hunting," in which the two also starred.

Given that triumph, what took so long between writing scripts?

"I don't know," Affleck said. "I started writing the script, like, three or four years ago, and it took a long time to get it all the way through to directing it and finishing it and -- this stuff takes a long time. It took about four years to get 'Good Will Hunting' all the way through, too. It's a lot of work."

In between, Affleck has had a string of movies, including some bombs like "Jersey Girl" and "Gigli" and some hits like "Hollywoodland," which earned him the top acting award at the Venice Film Festival last year.

He also had a high-profile romance with then tabloid queen Jennifer Lopez, which ended in a broken engagement, and a much lower profile romance with actress Jennifer Garner, which ended in a 2005 marriage and the birth almost two years ago of a daughter, Violet. Jennifer Garner, best-known as the star of the TV show "Alias," can be seen in "The Kingdom" opposite Jamie Foxx and is now preparing for a role on Broadway.

Affleck is much more reticent about discussing his personal life. Asked about plans for his daughter's upcoming birthday, he says, " You know, that's not something that I've given thought to."

Pressed for information on her favorite toys -- "Dora the Explorer" perhaps, he says, "Haven't ... not a big television household for the kids."

Affleck admits that his days as tabloid fodder have had a role in making him cautious about exposing his family to it. "We try to, as best we can, to, you know, maintain some privacy for our child. It's hard.

"It's one thing where I've come to terms with, you know, the degree to which I have to be photographed and that kind of thing, but I really try to be protective of our daughter and, you know, you do the best you can."

But none of this has kept Affleck from losing his sense of humor. Earlier this week, in an appearance on The Early Show, Casey Affleck was asked about Ben's strength as a director, and he responded, "He's tall."

Reminded of this, Ben replies, "That was Casey's strength as an actor -- smaller."