Siblings Ben and Casey Affleck team up to be 'Baby' brothers

HOLLYWOOD -- While shooting "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" in Alberta, Canada, Casey Affleck got a pitch from a first-time director who wanted to cast Affleck in his movie.

The visitor was no stranger; it was his big brother, Ben.

Casey was truly surprised that his brother wanted to cast him in the lead of his mystery, "Gone Baby Gone." He politely told Ben he'd have an answer after work was completed on "Jesse James."

"I wanted to be careful about the decision because I wanted to make sure I could do something that was right for the part," Casey says in a quiet, raspy voice.

After wrapping "Jesse James," in which he plays Robert Ford opposite Brad Pitt's James, Casey turned his attention to "Gone Baby Gone" and decided it was something he wanted to do.

Initially, Ben had bought the movie rights to Dennis Lehane's book, on which the movie is based, as a potential starring vehicle for himself. He intended to have someone else direct it. But as he and his old friend Aaron Stockard were writing the screenplay, he decided he wanted to direct the picture himself.

He couldn't imagine directing and starring in the film, though. It would be too big of a challenge for his first time at the helm.

"I don't know how guys like Clint (Eastwood) and Mel (Gibson) do it," Ben says. "The idea of directing alone was daunting."

He also had problems with the lead character in the film, a private investigator depicted in the book as a man in his late 30s or early 40s who has to make an incredibly difficult decision.

"By the time you reach that age, if something bad happens to you it's scarring, but it doesn't really change you fundamentally," he says. "I thought if I make him younger -- maybe 29 or 30 -- it would give him more to lose and somewhere for (his character) to go."

Having also co-written for the screen ("Gerry"), Casey gave his brother some notes on the script but basically adhered to Ben's vision of the film.

"The one thing, above all, is that he captured a real sense of place," Casey observes. "I'm really proud of him and what he did."

The topic of child abduction was important to Ben, the father of a young daughter with his wife, actress Jennifer Garner.

"I became a parent before this movie started," he recalls. "On the one hand, (fatherhood) gave me more of an emotional appreciation of the issues in terms of children."

Casey, who is also a father, was moved by the film's subject matter. (He is married to actress Summer Phoenix; they have a 3-year-old daughter and are expecting their second child soon.) He still thinks about the justification of his character's decision months after completing production.

"We need to stop letting children down, and we need to protect them better in this country," he says.

Ben, 35, regarded his brother, who is three years younger, as the ideal actor to play Patrick, a South Boston native, who along with his live-in girlfriend, Angie, runs a small private detective agency. The agency is solicited to help find a missing 4-year-old girl. New to the sleuthing business, Patrick and Angie are unsure whether they should take on such a high-profile case, which already is being investigated by the local police department. Moved by the family's plight, they decide to go forward, particularly because they know the neighborhood and its residents.

Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman ("Million Dollar Baby") co-star.

For his filmmaking debut, Ben says he purposely selected material that was geographically familiar to him. He and Casey grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and understand the region, its inhabitants and the local dialect. He also liked the way Lehane constructed the story about a community's reaction to a missing girl.

"I'm not that good at writing plot," the fledgling filmmaker says modestly. "This story already had an architecture, allowing me to focus on character and dialogue, which I feel more confident about."

Working together as director and actor, the Afflecks agree, was easy.

"We kind of spoke the same language," Casey says. "We also had a kind of (communication) shorthand, which is really helpful because there's not a lot of time (to discuss things) when you're making a movie."

Ben says he knew his brother, a veteran of some two dozen films, could handle the lead role. (His credits include "Gerry," "Lonesome Jim," the "Ocean's" trilogy and "American Pie 2.") After directing his younger brother, Ben says his respect for Casey only grew.

"I got to see that he has a fearlessness that I really admire," he says.

Ben knows that some naysayers will dismiss the casting of his brother as a case of Hollywood nepotism, but he urges anyone who has any doubts to withhold judgment until they see the movie and Casey's performance. Already, the actor is getting some of the best reviews of his career for his back-to-back roles in "Jesse James" and "Gone Baby Gone."

But is the younger Affleck prepared to step into the glare of Hollywood's spotlight?

"I only feel different in that I haven't done many movies that I've been proud of," Casey says. "The ones I've loved, other people haven't responded to."

With "Jesse James" and "Gone Baby Gone," he finds greater consensus.

Is he worried that he might run into the pitfalls Ben faced when he achieved stardom? (Remember "Bennifer"?)

"No," says Casey. "You can be as big a movie star as there is and retain some sense of privacy and have a private life. I walk down the street with Matt Damon and the paparazzi don't follow him around.

"I'm just old enough and starting to understand and embrace the idea that you can't control any of that stuff," he continues. "I don't worry too much about it. And if I get to the point in my life where there's something out of control with the way things are going, I can always take my family and disappear."