But I get to work with some tremendous people, and opportunities come a little easier now that the profile has gotten a little broader, so I’m just very fortunate and very happy.

- What advice were you given early on that you found was really wrong or really right?

Jon:  None of us would be here if we didn’t have fairly thick skin. As an actor, especially a struggling actor, starting off, you get rejected more often than you get accepted, and my road to this table was probably a lot longer and a little more twisted than some.  Most of acting is about being rejected. 

So, I’m sure everyone has a story of walking into an audition room and just failing horribly, and I’m certainly no exception.

- Jon, given the success of Ben Affleck, do you have any aspirations to work behind the scenes as a writer, producer, director, or anything else?

Jon: I can’t write.  I can’t focus long enough.  I find it terrifying.  My girlfriend, of now going on thirteen years, is a writer and producer, and now a director.  She has her first feature in the fall.  And she’s an accomplished actress as well. 

But I watch her do that stuff and I just don’t have the focus.  I don’t know how you focus like that.  I have the attention span of like a hopped-up squirrel.  I can’t focus on one thing longer than anything else.

- Blake, what’s the difference in doing a movie like this as opposed to your upcoming movie, Green Lantern, which is more CG heavy and fantastical? Do you approach the material the same?  Do you prefer one over the other?

Blake: It’s entirely different.  It’s a whole different art.  You know, when you’re doing a movie where the world is ending around you, or outer space is crumbling around you, you’re in a big studio with big, blue walls. 

Whereas in this, you’re in a scene in a real bar in Charlestown, which Ben filled with real ex-cons.  They were telling me, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, I lived in LA for eighteen years.  I didn’t see it though.’  I said, ‘Why not?’  ‘I was in prison.  I just got out two months ago.’  ‘Oh great.’ 

So, you’re so much more in touch with the world you’re a part of and you have a greater sense of what it’s going to be like and what you’re actually doing. 

Whereas with a film like Green Lantern, so much of the movie takes places once my work is done in the next six months.  At least half of that movie is going to come together, so the viewing experience will definitely be different.

The Town is in cinemas 24th September

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