Ben Affleck hated being a jetsetter because it "built up a wall" between him and reality.
The Hollywood star has reminisced about his life in the limelight. His relationship and subsequent split from Jennifer Lopez was high profile but since then he has retreated from the spotlight, keeping his marriage to Jennifer Garner much more private.
The star is glad he's changed his lifestyle as he is a lot happier now.
"Right, I do," he replied, when the German edition of OK! magazine asked if he hates the jet set lifestyle he used to lead. "Because it built up this wall between me and reality. I didn't have any experiences that I could use for my work as an actor. And I was surrounded by suck-ups who wanted to be on my side because they thought it was cool."
The 40-year-old made a conscious decision to be more secretive about his life. It's one of the reasons why he turned to directing rather than acting and now he makes sure he's only involved in projects which mean a lot to him.
At one point, the star was concerned he had made a mess of his career.
"I wanted to get rid of this celebrity image that I used to have. Before [my family] I was chasing after every single project. I always thought I had to do everything. That screwed up my career pretty badly because when you're in a hurry you don't do good movies," he said.
"With my family I learnt one thing: life is confusing and hard and I don't know all the answers, but at least now I can tell which direction I wanna go."

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