We’re going to have to brush off our high school American Lit syllabus, but we’re pretty sure Ben Affleck’s Great Gatsby character Tom Buchanan is characterized as an incredibly handsome rich socialite. A socialite who cheats on Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan, thus bringing about Gatsby’s downfall, but a rich mega babe none the less. It’s a role Affleck has been preparing for, oh, the last decade now. The Hollywood Reporter claims that Affleck is currently circling the role, which he would play opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway. If director Baz Luhrmann wanted, he could play Actor Musical Chairs and still get the exact combination of looks and money necessary for each character, no matter who sits where.
If the Moulin Rouge director gets his way, Affleck would be landing the Gatsby role Bradley Cooper has been trying to nail down for months. “To me, he’s the best character in the book. He’s so complicated,†Cooper gushed about Tom .”He’s xenophobic, he’s an alcoholic, but he also understands some profound stuff about class. Whoever plays it has to take a gentle hand, because it could so easily be stock, where he’s a rich jerk you don’t identify with at all.” Okay, so maybe Ben isn’t exactly his character’s clone, but we have no doubt that he will use a gentle hand no matter what the role.
