This could come as a surprise, but famous actor and director Ben Affleck’s height is 6’4″. He towers over many of his fellow stars. For reference, this makes him the same height as Jason Momoa, which in turn, means that both actors are much taller than their cast-mate Henry Cavill, who stands at 6’1″. Given this, it should be no surprise to learn that Affleck is much taller than the average American male, who stands at no more than 5’10”. Summed up, while he doesn’t necessarily look like it when he is on the movie screen, Affleck is tall, which is bound to have affected his career as an actor.
Why Does Ben Affleck’s Height Matter?
In short, many people might have heard something about how people with different heights get different treatments in life. The best example is a paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, which showed that an additional inch of height could mean somewhere between 1 to 8 percent addition in a man’s earnings. Effectively, this meant that a man’s career success was determined in significant part by his height, though it is unclear if this relationship was either causal or correlational. Whatever the case, the relationship between the two was even worse for women and members of racial minorities, meaning that their height played an even greater role for them.
What Role Does Height Play in Hollywood?
As a result, it is not unreasonable to speculate that a taller person might have more success in Hollywood than a shorter person when other factors of relevance were the same for both individuals. However, it should be mentioned that there is an additional element to this because how someone looks can have a huge impact on the roles that they are considered for. For example, if someone is short, their chances of being cast as the leading man become a lot lower, while their chances of being cast as either the sidekick or the comedic relief shoot up even if they have a right look otherwise.
Likewise, if someone is so tall that they no longer fit into the range of heights that most people are willing to see as being “normal,” their chances of being cast as the leading man go down as well, while their chances of playing a more brutish sort of antagonist go up. After all, most of the content creators in Hollywood seem to want leading men who are taller than the leading ladies or their counterparts to emphasize their stand-out status, but not so much so that they start making their fellow actors seem small. Moreover, in romantic movies and overall, women are appreciated to be shorter than their male romantic interests.
Exceptions Prove the Norm
Certainly, some actors manage to defy these trends. For proof, look no further than Tom Cruise, who has managed to star in numerous blockbusters even though he stands at 5’7″, which is actually shorter than the average American male. However, individual data points can’t disprove entire trends. As for Affleck, well, suffice it to say that while 6’4″ is tall, he is not so tall that it becomes particularly noticeable to the viewers. Perhaps because of many close-up shots and actresses who weren’t much shorter than him. In general, it is possible that Affleck has benefited from his height over the course of his career, like other taller men have benefited from their height in their careers. Nevertheless, this fact shouldn’t detract from Affleck’s actual acting merits.
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