At a Glance
- Jennifer Garner revealed Ben Affleck replayed Beyoncé’s “Halo” for months while writing The Town
- The couple were living in a Cambridge rental with two toddlers during the 2009 shoot
- The 2008 track became Affleck’s creative anchor for the 2010 crime thriller
- Why it matters: A rare peek at how an Academy Award winner engineers focus-and what it’s like to live through the soundtrack
Jennifer Garner has peeled back the curtain on a private ritual that helped Ben Affleck craft his 2010 Boston heist film The Town: a single Beyoncé song on endless repeat.
During a January 15 bookstore appearance at Diesel in Los Angeles, Garner joined The Last Thing He Told Me author Laura Dave and costar Rita Wilson to discuss Dave’s sequel, The First Time I Saw Him. Conversation turned to creative habits, and Dave admitted she writes while replaying the same tracks. Garner jumped in with a knowing laugh.
“Do you guys do this? Do you listen to a song over and over again?” Garner asked the crowd. “I just want to tell you something. I’ve survived this. I have lived through it.”
She then explained that Affleck relied on the method while directing and starring in The Town. The family-Garner, Affleck, infant Samuel, and toddler Seraphina-had relocated to a temporary rental in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the shoot. “He listened to Beyoncé’s ‘Halo,’ and I would be nursing,” she said, painting a vivid picture of the household soundtrack.
The Creative Loop Behind The Town
Affleck’s repetitive listening wasn’t a one-off quirk. In a 2016 interview on the Golden Globes website, he detailed the practice: “I listen to music when I write and usually I will find a couple of songs that are inspiring to me and I just sort of put them on a loop and then I will write to music.”
The actor-director credited the technique with sharpening concentration and setting tone. “I find that it’s kind of hypnotic and it allows me to concentrate more and it puts me more in the kind of feeling of the scene that I want the story to have. And so I think music is really, really helpful.”
That hypnotic effect clearly worked on The Town. Released in September 2010, the film earned Affleck widespread praise for both his direction and lead performance as Doug MacRay, a Charlestown bank robber torn between loyalty to his crew and love for a hostage-turned-romantic-interest played by Rebecca Hall.
Life in the Rental
Garner’s anecdote highlights the overlap of art and domestic life. While Affleck pieced together action sequences and dialogue, she managed newborn feeds and preschool energy amid the steady pulse of Beyoncé’s 2008 power ballad. The couple, married from 2005 to 2015, also had eldest daughter Violet in the home, making for a full house.
“And he listened to Beyoncé’s ‘Halo,’ and I would be nursing,” Garner reiterated, underlining the memory’s sensory imprint. Dave commiserated, noting screenwriter Tom Stoppard employs the same looping strategy. “When I heard that, I thought, okay, I’m in some good company,” Dave replied.
The Film That Came of It
Set in Boston’s historically crime-ridden Charlestown neighborhood, The Town expanded Affleck’s filmmaking résumé beyond his 2007 directing debut Gone Baby Gone. The ensemble cast included Jeremy Renner as Affleck’s volatile best friend, Blake Lively as a drug-addicted single mother, and Rebecca Hall as the bank manager who unwittingly enters the robbers’ crosshairs.
The movie grossed $154 million worldwide on a $37 million budget and scored Renner an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Critics singled out Affleck’s confident direction of both action set pieces-such as a Fenway Park heist-and emotional beats exploring generational cycles of crime.
Key Takeaways
- Repetition fuels focus: Affleck’s single-song loop helped him maintain narrative tone across months of writing and editing.
- Family life under one roof: The Cambridge rental blended creative obsession with everyday parenting, a balance many couples navigate during location shoots.
- Music as muse: Beyoncé’s vocals became the subconscious backdrop for a gritty Boston crime saga, proving inspiration can come from unexpected genres.
- Public vs. private: Garner’s light-hearted retelling offers fans a rare glimpse into the domestic soundtrack behind a celebrated Hollywood production.
