In response to an eight-year-old FOIA request by British academic Matthew Alford, the CIA recently released over 200 pages of documents that shed new light on the “close working relationship” between the CIA and Hollywood. This is the story of how the CIA recruited Ben Affleck, revealed in unclassified production documents (read below).
The 2012 spy drama Argo, starring Ben Affleck and based on the real-life CIA operation to exfiltrate six embassy staff trapped in Tehran following the 1979 revolution, was a big publicity boost for the agency.
In late 2012 Ben Affleck was on the promotional circuit for Argo. Naturally, this led to questions about the CIA-Hollywood connection and, in one interview, Affleck commented “Probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents, and we just don’t know it.”
When he was asked if he was working for the CIA Affleck replied, “I am, yes, and now you’ve blown my cover.”
2001: Affleck’s first contact with the Age...