Tackling a New Job at - The Company Men - Premiere

For writer-director John Wells, the premiere of "The Company Men" marks a serious job shift. The man known for creating, writing and directing hit television shows including "E.R." and "Third Watch" has made the leap to the big screen with his drama about corporate downsizing and its effect on the lives of a group of men whose jobs go down the drain. His fame as a creative force got him a dream cast, with Oscar-winning actors Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and Chris Cooper joining Ben Affleck as the guys finding out the hard way what it is like to be unemployed.

Affleck joined Wells at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, Dec. 8, to celebrate the premiere, but it was earlier, at the Toronto Film Festival screening, that the actor discussed the film at a press conference. The married father of two explained that he tapped into his own life experience to get into the mindset of his character, a hotshot executive who suddenly finds himself adrift, which naturally affects his marriage and family life.

"I think it would be really hard for me to play somebody who was in a real marriage," he said, "without having one and being in one and understanding that and being able to bring that to bear or at least in a real relationship. When I was younger and not understanding what that was about, it would've been hard for me to understand the pressures, the complications, the nuances of the whole thing."

Playing a corporate guy was actually more of a stretch for Affleck, but not knowing where the next job is coming from is something he's very familiar with experiencing.

"Being an actor, you have one audition, you might get that part and then the job's over and you have no guarantee that you'll ever work again for the rest of your life. So that's really scary. One thing about working in the arts is that you internalize that reality and you learn it from a very early age," he said. "That's a fact that people who work in much more traditional corporate jobs are now learning, and it isn't easy."