Yes, Ben Affleck knows he has a resting sad face. Yes, he knows it’s highly meme-able.
The actor and filmmaker recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his upcoming sports drama Air, but instead took a moment to address what everyone in the audience was thinking about: his “very unhappy-looking resting face.”
“That’s how God made me,” he told Jimmy Kimmel. “You don’t have to punish me for it.”
Kimmel had thanked the actor for inviting him and his wife to his Christmas party but noted, “It did seem like you weren’t quite as psyched about the party as everybody else was.”
“That’s a common misconception about me,” Affleck joked.
“I have a very unhappy-looking resting face,” he went on to explain. He added, “This is me content,” before his smile dropped into a passive expression.
“This is me amused,” Affleck continued, dropping his face back into a serious expression.
Affleck doesn’t seem to mind the memes, however. He went viral just last month after his serious demeanor landed him and his wife Jennifer Lopez in some hot water at the Grammys. People thought he looked “miserable” while others thought Lopez had snapped at him when the two were shown sharing a private conversation at the event.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, he cleared the air.
“I saw [Grammy host Trevor Noah approach] and I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ They were framing us in this shot, but I didn’t know they were rolling,” he explained. “I leaned into her and I was like, ‘As soon they start rolling, I’m going to slide away from you and leave you sitting next to Trevor.’ She goes, ‘You better fucking not leave.’ That’s a husband-and-wife thing.”
Affleck even said he “had a good time” that evening.
When asked what it’s like to be a “walking meme,” Affleck told THR, “At a certain point, I am who I am.”