By Mike Collett-White
VENICE (Reuters) - Ben Affleck said he drew on personal experience to play 1950s television Superman star George Reeves in a new film which uses his mysterious death to examine the highs and lows of Hollywood fame.
"Hollywoodland" premiered in Venice on Thursday, the second "film noir" detective story to hit the annual film festival in as many days after "The Black Dahlia" kicked of the 11-day movie marathon on Wednesday.
Affleck, who has famously enjoyed as many lows in his movie career as highs, acknowledged he had plenty in common with Reeves, but stopped short of calling his latest performance a "comeback" after two critical flops in recent years.
"I never use the 'c'-word -- it's impolite," the 34-year-old told reporters after a press screening of the film.
"Nowadays ... people pay attention more and more to actors' private lives or personal lives or even the most mundane aspects of their every day lives in a kind of parallel track alongside their movies," said popular tabloid target Affleck.
"Even the movies sometimes become incidental pit stops or commercial breaks in the soap opera of their life. I think that is bad for the actors, definitely, because it makes it difficult to suspend disbelief when you go and see their movie."
He called fame "just the dance you have to dance."
Early reaction to "Hollywoodland" suggests the critics will be kinder to Affleck this time around, after he was savaged for his role in the 2003 film "Gigli" in which he starred alongside former partner Jennifer Lopez.
But his performance could be overshadowed by Diane Lane, who plays Reeves' older lover in the film, and Oscar best actor winner Adrien Brody as a small-time private detective sucked into investigating the mysterious death.
SUICIDE VERSION CHALLENGED
The film puts forward several theories as to how Reeves, who became a household name for his role as Superman in a hugely successful television series, died in June, 1959 from a single gunshot wound.
His death was initially treated as suicide, explained by his depression at failing to make it as a big movie star. But doubts surfaced when two more bullet holes were discovered at the scene of his death and no fingerprints were found on the gun.
Debut movie director Allen Coulter, best known for his work on TV series "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos," said there were lessons today from what happened nearly 50 years ago.
"This is a movie about the world we live in now, largely populated by the cult of celebrity, the need for everybody these days, regardless of what their job is, to somehow get their picture in the paper ... to have their 15 seconds of fame.
"Hollywood ... promotes the notion that only the glamorous, only the famous are really to be valued and that's what I think ultimately makes the film a tragedy."
So important does fame become, Affleck argued, that some even contemplate suicide in order to achieve it. But he added: "I think generally speaking it's not the greatest career move. Personally I would rather not be famous than dead."
