Ben Affleck Reveals the Young Actress Leonardo DiCaprio Can’t Stop Praising

Ben Affleck is making it clear that the praise for Teyana Taylor is very real, and not just something people say for interviews.

In a new chat with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck opened up about working with Taylor on the upcoming Netflix crime thriller The Rip. He said the love she’s getting right now is exactly what he’s been hearing behind the scenes for a long time.

“I talked to Paul [Thomas Anderson], and it was like, everybody raves about her,” Affleck said. He also revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio had nothing but good things to say when they crossed paths. According to Affleck, these were private conversations, not the kind meant for cameras. “But she’s really the opposite of that, and she blows people away.”

Matt Damon, who also stars in The Rip, echoed that same energy. He had glowing words about Taylor’s work ethic and character. “She is awesome. She is absolutely awesome,” Damon said. “She’s so professional, so great, just a really, really good person.” He added that it’s been great to watch the rest of the world catch up to what people in the industry already knew about her talent.

Taylor’s current moment didn’t come out of nowhere. While she’s now earning major attention for her performance alongside DiCaprio in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, she’s been in the business since her teens. She signed her first record deal at 15 and worked early on with names like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. On the acting side, she appeared in films like Stomp the Yard: Homecoming and Madea’s Big Happy Family before earning serious critical praise for her role in A Thousand and One.

Affleck also shared how impressed he is by Taylor’s vision for the future. “She’s gonna direct her first feature next year,” he said, noting how focused and prepared she already is. “She has a great perspective on her situation now and a boundless ambition and talent to match.”

In The Rip, Taylor plays Miami detective Numa Baptiste, a role that’s a sharp contrast to her character in One Battle After Another, where she portrays a radical revolutionary involved in robberies and bombings. Both performances have drawn strong reviews, and after her recent Golden Globe win, awards buzz around her keeps growing.

Affleck believes this is only the beginning. “I really do feel like it’s not so much a moment as a launching for what I believe will be a really long, fruitful career,” he said.

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