Ben Affleck made a special appearance at last night’s Grammy Awards, but the Gone Girl actor looked like he would have rather been literally anywhere else but inside the Crypto.com Arena.
Affleck, who attended the award show with his wife, Jennifer Lopez, was featured frequently on the Feb. 5 broadcast, and viewers quickly noticed that he seemed sad, bored, miserable — or some combination of the three — as he watched some of music’s biggest names perform and accept awards.
Nearly every time the camera panned to Affleck and Lopez, he failed to crack a smile. In one clip that’s particularly popular on Twitter, Affleck nods along with a pained expression on his face as he listens to some live music.
Of course, Twitter ate up every moment of his misery, losing it over Affleck’s very clear disinterest in music’s biggest night.
“Whoever keeps cutting to Ben Affleck as he gets more and more exasperated, thank you,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another joked, “ben affleck is so consistent in his misery i almost have to admire it.”
One Grammys viewer tweeted, “Ben Affleck at the Grammys is me any time I have to be on a zoom call,” while another commented, “you think the grammys are too long? imagine how ben affleck feels.”
While anyone can look a little bored at a televised event and manage to avoid the meme treatment, Affleck is an exception, thanks in large part to his past sad Affleck moments. We’ve all seen the actor looking more than a little down during a smoke break, a Dunkin’ run, and in one infamous photo, a cloudy beach day.
Affleck’s phoenix back tattoo — which he debuted after going for a swim in Hawaii — was captured by paparazzi photos in 2018, and subsequently inspired an entire New Yorker article titled “The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck.”
While Affleck was roasted mercilessly for his unmissable ink (and the mournful pose he struck on the beach that day, with his hands folded behind his back and his tattoo on full display), he’s proven that he can take the heat.
“@NewYorker I’m doing just fine,” he tweeted after the article was published. “Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.”
