Big Ben Is Back, in a Super Role

Los Angeles - If it seems like

Ben Affleck has been missing in action lately, it is because he really has been out of action. After almost ten years of being in the center of the white-hot celebrity spotlight, doing big-budget action movies, a series of less-than-stellar flicks, and dating fellow "A" list actress

Jennifer Lopez, two years ago Affleck shifted gears, stepped back, and changed his life.

He quit acting in movies, choosing to focus on directing and writing (he has an Academy Award for his "Good Will Hunting" script, shared with

Matt Damon), and he fell in love with another Jennifer, Garner this time, whom he has since married. And in the biggest life change of all, he and Garner had a baby daughter, Violet, back in December 2005.

With all those life changes, it's not too surprising that the Ben Affleck who stars as the doomed actor George Reeves in the new film "Hollywoodland" seems different. More mature, perhaps? As the 34-year-old tells it, maybe that is part of it; or perhaps it is just a shift in his overall priorities.

"It's just more about me not doing some movies for a while," Affleck explained to a large group of reporters recently in Los Angeles. "I wanted to sort of take a break and keep things quiet and I kind of made a decision to just do the kind of movies that I wanted. And that I could be proud of being in, and not work for money, or work to be famous, or for any of that stuff."

His role as Reeves in "Hollywoodland" is perfect for creating a shift in his on-screen persona. Reeves, who began his career with roles in films like "Gone With the Wind," became the iconic embodiment of a comic-book character when his television series "Superman" hit big in the mid-Fifties. Fame and some fortune followed, but once the series ended, Reeves could never again escape that persona, and eventually committed suicide. Or perhaps was murdered, which is the premise of the film, exploring the shady circumstances surrounding his death.

Affleck as Reeves gives a nuanced performance, playing Reeves as a big, handsome, ego-driven man whose successes in Hollywood are never quite enough to satisfy his desire for fame and fortune. It's a role that didn't take Big Ben too much research; he simply had to look inward at his own life experiences to tap into what Reeves must have felt as his career began to slip away after "Superman" ended but the identification of him as that single character did not.

"There is a line in the film where George Reeves says, 'It should've been enough for life.' What he had," Affleck reflected. "To me it's about the condition of humanity whereby it's never really enough. It's that feeling, that ambition that drives you to achieve and yet that also keeps us perpetually kind of dissatisfied, that sort of grass-is-greener thing. Those things that propel us, and at the same time frustrate us and stifle us in trying to live."

The film, which boasts a stellar cast including

Adrien Brody,

Diane Lane, and

Bob Hoskins, is sure to make people look at Ben Affleck in a whole new light, which is exactly what the seasoned actor is hoping, since he actually feels like a whole new person these days.

"Ultimately, I found myself at the end of that period [of overexposure] to have sort of a horrible feeling," he recalled frankly. "I felt trapped inside and part of this whole tabloid situation where my personal life was out there. So just being able to take a couple of years and reassess, to think about what I want to do with my life, what do I want to be, has been great. I have a family. I'm working on stuff I like.

"And it's just rewarding and so nice to be in a movie that I'm proud of. I don't see myself out in the press and in the papers as much either, which has been really nice!"

"Hollywoodland" opens Friday, September 8.