Ben Affleck earned some of the best reviews of his career for “The Way Back.” The Warner Bros. drama — one of the final big theatrical releases before the pandemic — depicts a high school basketball coach struggling with the demons of alcoholism, a disease that Affleck, now sober, has lived through. It’s a grounded and frank take on human-scale issues that found a fan in Sacha Baron Cohen.
The British actor had two splashy big-screen outings in 2020: First, as “Flower Power” activist Abbie Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” on Netflix, and then as the gonzo Kazakh journalist in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” In the “Borat” sequel, made in secret and released by Amazon Studios before the election, Borat explores the divisions of Trump’s America, ending with an unruly ambush of Rudy Giuliani, who seems to creepily attempt to seduce Borat’s daughter, played by Maria Bakalova.
The two sat down for a virtual chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors, presented by Amazon Studios. Watch the full conversation above.
