Ben Affleck: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Fred O'Bannion - Dazed And Confused

Ben Affleck only has a small part in Richard Linklater's seminal, oddly timeless coming-of-age drama - he's a hazing senior, chasing around new freshmen trying to paddle them, eventually getting his comeuppance in the form of a dousing of paint - to the point where it's easy to forget (compared to the more prominent likes of Matthew McConaughey and Milla Jovovich) he's even in the film. However, I'd still say it's a pretty essential piece of his filmography. In his early career (especially before winning the Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting), it was very easy to disregard Affleck as being only able to play brutes, with only his friendship with Kevin Smith a clue to his deeper smarts. And yet here, in one of his earliest screen roles, is a sense of astute understanding; O'Bannion isn't just a bully, even though that's all he needed to be. Instead, Affleck injects the moments where he's not trying to beat kids several years his junior (half a deacde if we're going by real age) with an affability - he's pally with Wooderson and when just chilling with his friends has no sense of coiled anger. Even the biggest, older bully still has an underlying humanity.