The Real Story Behind Ben Affleck's Resurfaced Touchy-Feely Interview With Canadian Reporter (Exclusive)
Anne-Marie Losique tells ET her interaction with the actor was 'strictly for cameras.'
There's more to that story about Ben Affleck getting flirty with a Canadian reporter oncamera that the internet resurfaced on Wednesday.
Shortly after Affleck was accused via Twitter of groping Hilarie Burton while she was a host on MTV's Total Request Live over 15 years ago (which he has since apologized for), fans started talking about the 45-year-old actor for another reason: his sexually suggestive interview with "Box Office" host Anne-Marie Losique in 2004.
It all came about when people on social media started calling Affleck a "hypocrite" for speaking out against his former boss, Harvey Weinstein, saying in a statement that he was "angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades."
Fans who saw the resurfaced video, which you can watch below, started to believe Affleck wasn't all that innocent himself. But when ET spoke with Losique, she told us what really happened that day -- and why Affleck appeared so forward.
"I have to put it in context. I did many interviews like that with Ben Affleck," said Losique, who wanted to make it very clear that she was "not at all" the victim. "So, the day I did that particular interview, it was a bit as usual, I would say, in the sense that we would have this game going on and it was strictly for the cameras, while the cameras were on."
Many times during our interview, Losique reiterated the fact that how she and Affleck acted toward one another was just for show, telling ET it was something that was "very popular" in Quebec at the time. "We always got very high ratings," she admitted. "Networks would 'milk that,' as we say a lot. It was huge, really, as a fun thing."
"I aired everything that we did in the full interview without editing anything out because I thought it was kind of fun," she explained. "Every time there were those interviews, everybody would watch and it was a big thing in Quebec. People still talk to me about it in very good terms nowadays. Now, of course with this whole story, I guess it changes the dynamic a little bit, but up to yesterday night, it was still very positive."
Despite how they acted in front of the camera, Losique said Affleck was much different behind the scenes.
"He was actually very proper and we talked about many things," she said. "He's very knowledgeable about French culture, Quebec politics, etc."
"[During these interviews] there was nothing improper. I went in, chatted a little bit, then we did this thing on camera and then I went out," she added. "So, there was nothing else. It didn't lead to anything. I did not go to his room or anything like that."
Losique said the interviews always took place around one of Affleck's big "film releases," and told ET that the first time she ever chatted with him, it was actually a way more "serious" conversation.
"At the end of the [first] interview, he started imitating my accent, which he thought was very funny," she recalled. "And then it just went from there. The next interview, he imitated my accent even more, and then it went into this crazy game where I would go in his lap and he would just imitate me even more. It lasted for years actually ... If I had felt uncomfortable, first of all, I would have stopped it right away."
And while Losique still finds her interviews with Affleck "funny" to this day, she said she doesn't want the resurfaced video -- or any others -- to be taken out of context.
"I don't want it to be mixed in with that whole, that whole story [with Hilarie] and that Harvey Weinstein story, because it should not be mixed in to that story. It's something completely different," she said. "This was a game for cameras. We both knew we were doing this game. We had fun with it and that was it. There was nothing else."