AFFLECK AIMS FOR SUCCESS, NOT STARDOM.

Byline: Glenn Whipp

Daily News: After ``Chasing Amy'' and ``Good Will Hunting,'' audiences might be scratching their heads wondering what you're doing in an asteroids movie.

Affleck: I know. It sounds like I'm selling out. The funny thing is, I was never the guy who wanted to do indie films. I grew up loving the ``Star Wars'' movies, ``Indiana Jones'' and ``Back to the Future.'' You'd never catch me watching a boring foreign film. I was Mainstream Man. On the set, I kept asking Michael Bay where my NASA light saber was.

DN: Did you look at ``Armageddon'' as your big break, since you were hired for that film before ``Good Will Hunting'' came out?

Affleck: Yeah, I always thought this would be the first movie that a lot of people would see. My highest ambitions for ``Good Will Hunting'' were that maybe a few critics would like it and it would do break-even business because Robin (Williams) was in it. I kept saying, ``Matty (Damon), if we just do $25 million, maybe they'll let us do another movie.''

DN: And now you've got an Oscar to show for it and everyone knows who you are.

Affleck: It's weird, the whole fame thing. People are interested in my personal life and I'm not even that interested in it. I guess because you project this exciting, romantic life on the screen, people presuppose you must have this dashing, exciting life at home. And really, I'm just there sitting around watching TV with my gut hanging out.

DN: Since you're calling yourself Mainstream Man, do you plan on taking your career in a pretty commercial direction?

Affleck: I'd like to do a bunch of different things. Maybe that's impossible, but I'm going to try. After ``Armageddon,'' I did Kevin Smith's next movie, ``Dogma,'' which cost all of $4 million. Then I did ``Shakespeare in Love,'' a period movie with Geoffrey Rush, Dame Judi Dench and Gwyneth Paltrow. And now I'm doing ``Forces of Nature,'' a romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock.

DN: Do you have any desire to direct someday?

Affleck: Definitely. And when I do, it will probably be more like ``Good Will Hunting'' than ``Armageddon'' because that's what I know about - relationships between young people trying to make their way through life. I know very little about meteor showers and space ships.

DN: Being a relatively unknown actor at the time, were you a little intimidated when you walked on to the ``Armageddon'' set?

Affleck: Are you kidding? I was extremely intimidated for the first six weeks. I was intimidated by the scope of the movie, by the money they were spending, by Jerry Bruckheimer, by Michael Bay, who's very loud and brash until you figure him out ... And then there's Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Stormare, Steve Buscemi. I felt like the absolute scrub rookie player on a veteran all-star team.

DN: So how'd you manage to come out of that?

Affleck: I just tried to figure out how these movies work. Since you're competing with all these visual and audio histrionics, you have to simplify and choose one thing that's going to be the centerpiece of your performance. For me, I made this character a guy who has something to prove, so he was willing to take enormous risks. And when they didn't pay off, he'd feel hurt and want to take even bigger risks just so Bruce's character would like him.

DN: Did Willis offer any advice?

Affleck: Bruce had some pearls of wisdom. (Laughing) I taught Bruce a lot about acting and he taught me a lot about the benefits of Viagra. So it worked out well.

DN: It's hard to picture you being intimidated. You seem pretty outgoing.

Affleck: My mother always accused me of being in love with the sound of my own voice. We'd be on road trips and she'd be like, ``STOP SINGING! Be quiet! You're talking just to hear yourself speak!'' Which is probably true because I tend to like to pontificate and ramble on about stuff.

DN: Matt Damon is much the same way. How'd you ever write that ``Good Will Hunting'' script together?

Affleck: We have a thing where we'll both have an idea at the same time and it's just a matter of which one of us talks louder, that's whose idea wins out. Being around us when we write is tough. You need earplugs.

DN: Do you have plans to write together again?

Affleck: We'll be writing some stuff this summer. Matty's in Italy making a movie, so in our spare time, we'll write.

DN: Sure, you will.

Affleck: I know. It sounds bad. It's like I needed an excuse to go to Italy, so I called up Miramax and said, ``Look. Send a ticket. Matty and I are going to be working. Really. Don't worry. And make sure you cover all our expenses.''

DN: Do you guys ever compare notes or shake your heads in disbelief over your new status as sex symbols?

Affleck: (Laughs) You know, I don't see myself as a sex symbol. Sex symbols tend to be blond, sexually ambiguous ... you know, that David Cassidy kind of thing. In a weird way, it's the 13-year-old girls who define who's a sex symbol because they're the ones who show up at events shrieking. You need a certain kind of innocuousness to appeal to that. I don't think I have it. Matty, on the other hand, might, with his blond hair.

DN: So you'll leave the Teen Beat audience to him.

Affleck: Yeah. If I'm going to be a sex symbol, I'd rather be one for mature, 30-year-old women. In my opinion, they have better taste anyway.

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Photo: Although Ben Affleck plays Liv Tyler's love interest in ``Armageddon,'' he says he'll never see himself as a sex symbol.