“At first, they wanted to organize everything,” Affleck said. “It’s hard for people who are used to a call sheet and planner. They started saying, ‘we are gonna go here and here,’ and I was like, ‘No guys, just get in the car with the cameras and just go and I’ll take you places. We’ll look around and we’ll stop and get out and shoot people.’”

Stated Affleck, “I think they initially thought, ‘This guy has no fucking idea what he’s doing. He is a total hack. He has no idea about directing.’ I could actually tell they thought that but I figured they’d probably think that anyways, so hey!”

Despite the crew’s obvious fears when Affleck brought them into those areas where there’d be no way in hell you’d get out of the car and ask for directions, the fact that he was recognized made things much safer.

“Fortunately,” said Affleck, “one of the benefits of being a recognizable actor is people shift pretty quickly from being menacing to being like, ‘Heyyyyyyyyyyy, I know you.’”

While Affleck mingled with locals, he told the crew to shoot. Unaware of the camera, the crew captured people in their natural state.

“It was amazing,” said Affleck, enthusiastically. “This stuff… I wish I could use it by itself. We got people’s subconscious behavior because they were paying attention to the actor getting out of the car rather than the camera.

“We got this incredible documentary footage. Once these guys got inspired and realized what I wanted, everybody figured out what the movie was, the feel of the movie, the rawness of it.

“I was hoping the footage would bleed into the other stuff and make it feel more authentic. Therefore, we got the stuff shot on the stage with actors you recognize mixed with these non-professional actors in Boston so it all sloped up and down and melted together. In the end, you have this overall feeling of total authenticity.”

“I loved it,” continued Affleck. “I wish I could have used more of that stuff. In fact, in the editorial process, Billy, the editor, kept telling me, ‘You gotta take some of this out. You can’t have all of this.’ But it was one of the most satisfying elements of it. I loved the nontraditional thing that we managed to pull off. It’s not that it hasn’t happened before in movies but it was really successful.”

Putting together a loose twelve minute montage of stuff, Affleck showed his footage to the actors, saying, “This is the movie. This is the degree of realism that I want for the movie. In other words, I don’t want any artifacts. Just reflect the city.

“It was nice to have an interesting piece of film to show everyone in the beginning that said, ‘We are all going to be on this page,’ even though it came from right off the street. It still was sort of unifying because you thought, ‘Ok, alright, this is as real as you can possibly be and sort of align ourselves with this.”

Along with Affleck’s decision to use real folks in his flick, he also worked with an incredible cast of pros such as Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, John Ashton, and of course… Morgan Freeman.

“What was it like to direct Morgan Freeman?” I asked.

Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck

“Well, luckily,” said Affleck, “I spent one-hundred days working with the guy as an actor. That helped with the terror but also, quite frankly, he’s a very generous, professional guy. He could easily have made it difficult for me.

“He could have really intimidated me and made it tough but he didn’t. It was really his choice. But, you know, even being the professional that he is, I also could have fallen apart on my own.”

“As a first-time director, I could have intimidated myself,” stated Affleck. “So, every little bit of my own confidence I was able to hold onto, helped. I knew that if I let my worries and insecurities overwhelm me, they could possibly hurt the movie.”

It was Affleck’s fantastic cast, which he credits for the smooth-sailing production. “Not only were they all talented actors,” said Affleck. “Not only did they show up and do outstanding work and make the movie great but they also brought so much just in terms of their presence. Because of those guys, everyone on set worked twice as hard.”

Laughed Affleck, “So, if you can bring Ed Harris to your job every day, it would increase productivity one-hundred and fifty percent.”

Taught to Affleck by Gus Van Sant during the production of Good Will Hunting, casting is key in good directing. With an enormous amount of respect for the work his brother Casey does as an actor, Affleck knew that he was the perfect person for the lead role.

“One of the things that is too bad about movies is that because of the star system in relation to financing, only certain people who are recognizable merit certain budgets,” said Affleck.

“They [film investors] go, ‘I know who you are… ten guys, twenty guys… and anyone who is not one of those ten-to-twenty people, well, we haven’t heard of them so we won’t finance the movie based on them.’ So, you have this limited range of guys. You are used to seeing these people. You like them. They are good actors and you’ll see movies with them BUT there’s a certain kind of familiarity and you’re familiar with their behavior.”

“I gottcha,” I said. “You are one of those twenty actors on the list.”

“Yeah, and that’s fine,” Affleck said. “The list is great but on a certain subconscious level, I think you know what will happen because you think, ‘I’ve seen this person in so many movies where things have gone their way, and I know things will work out for them.’ Because Casey hasn’t been that guy, I thought the great thing about casting him is that there’s not that subconscious security with him in the role.

“You’re not really sure what’s going to happen with him in this part. You get a sense that he might make a mistake. He might not be strong enough. Something terrible might happen to him. I thought that was a really rare opportunity because you don’t have that safety net as you go through and this movie, wants to… you know, it asks some, I think, provocative questions.”

During detective Kenzie’s investigation, he gets involved in a separate child abuse case where he makes a choice that ultimately changes the core of him. Therefore, Kenzie’s final decision regarding Amanda’s disappearance is based on the outcome of something else and he is forced to live with the end result.

“It’s about becoming a man and Kenzie had to learn that as he becomes an adult, the decisions you make have lasting consequences and they impact not only you but other people, as well,” Affleck explained. “In the real world, often times, you never know if you were right or wrong. And you have to live with that.

“You have to live with the consequences of the choices that you made,” continued Affleck. “And beyond that, you get precious little.”

Gone Baby Gone ends with a scene, powerfully told through Kenzie’s facial expressions and body language. As he quietly sits beside the person that was directly impacted by his actions, it is the silence that speaks a thousand words and provokes a million questions.

Days after the screening of Gone Baby Gone, I kept asking myself the same recurring question: “Did detective Kenzie make a mistake?”

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