Janina Gavankar & Michaela Watkins On 'The Way Back' & Ben Affleck: 'We Got Real With Each Other'
(CBS Local)-- 2020 will be a big movie year for Ben Affleck and it starts with the sports drama "The Way Back."
Affleck plays a former high school basketball star named Jack Cunningham that deals with alcoholism, grief, and tragedy as he comes back to his alma mater to coach the boys basketball team. Janina Gavankar plays Affleck's ex-wife Angela in the film and Michaela Watkins plays Affleck's sister Beth. The two women were incredibly moved by the movie and the experience on the set with the 2x Oscar winner.
"The biggest surprise was how real we got with each other," said Gavankar in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "You always hope you're going to walk into a situation where somebody wants to go there. It's mostly not the case. Ben and I got real with each other. Even off-camera, we were off to the side talking about our own private experiences and put it right into the work."
"My biggest surprise was Ben is so good at playing rough Bostonians that I was sure he was from Quincy and he's not," said Watkins. "He's from Cambridge. Genuinely, my other surprise was Ben and our director Gavin O'Connor were so loving and warm. They created this atmosphere where you just want to do your best work and be as generous as you can and as vulnerable as you can."
"The Way Back" hit theaters on Friday, March 6.