Ben Affleck is reflecting on the deaths of both parents, who died about two months apart this year.
The actor and filmmaker, 54, spoke with GQ’s Zach Baron for the Oct. 6 installment of One More Question, recalling a conversation with his mother, Chris Affleck, before her death.
Affleck said the losses had brought back memories of his childhood and how he was raised. His mother’s death, in particular, had deepened his appreciation for her life.
“We only get so much time,” he said.
What His Mother Told Him at 83
Affleck recalled his mother telling him, “I had a great life and I have no regrets, but I thought 83 years would feel like longer.”
He recognized that feeling from reaching 30, then 40 and 50. Each milestone had arrived more quickly than he expected, and he said he still sometimes expected to see a much younger man looking back from the mirror.
Chris died on June 2. Her death certificate listed cardiopulmonary arrest, with pancreatic adenocarcinoma among the other conditions leading to her death, according to Us Weekly, which obtained the document in July.
A family obituary published by Boston.com on July 24 said she had been given six months to live in December 2025. After her diagnosis, she hoped to see her grandson graduate from high school. She attended the ceremony with her family on May 31.
Chris spent 35 years teaching before retiring in 2008. At the Oct. 1 premiere of Animals, Affleck told People that his mother’s work in Cambridge public schools had “made a lot of kids’ lives better.”
Affleck Describes a Complicated Relationship With His Father
Timothy Affleck died in early April. His son described their relationship as complicated and said they had not been especially close during the final years of Timothy’s life. He chose to keep the reasons private.
Affleck said he had once expected life to follow something like a movie’s three-act structure, with answers and resolution arriving toward the end. His experience had shown him that conflicts could remain unsettled unless the people involved actively addressed them.
He also described his parents’ deaths as deeply painful while acknowledging that they had lived long lives. To Affleck, parents dying before their children was the natural order; outliving his own children was the prospect he found hardest to imagine.
Making Time for His Children
Affleck shares Violet, Fin and Samuel with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. With his oldest child now at college, he said he was increasingly aware that the years spent living together as parent and child would not return.
If his son wants to play basketball, Affleck said he would rather put down his phone and leave a reply waiting than miss that time together.
He began building his routine around shared custody six or seven years ago, choosing to remain near his children instead of leaving for long film shoots. He now works from the Los Angeles offices of his production company, Artists Equity, and described wanting to be around for school pickups and his children’s activities.
After his mother’s death, Affleck also took a trip with his family, including his three children, according to Entertainment Weekly.