Ben Affleck has paid tribute to the CIA veteran who inspired ‘Argo’ after he passed away on Saturday (19.01.19).
The 46-year-old actor directed, co-produced, and starred in the 2012 political thriller, and he’s taken to Twitter to pay tribute to Tony Mendez, who died at the age of 78 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
He wrote: "Tony Mendez was a true American hero. He was a man of extraordinary grace, decency, humility and kindness. He never sought the spotlight for his actions, he merely sought to serve his country. I’m so proud to have worked for him and to have told one of his stories. #RIPTonyMendez (sic)"
Mendez famously posed as a film producer in order to smuggle six American diplomats out of Iran during the 1979-81 hostage crisis.
And Affleck previously admitted that the real-life story of Mendez is actually difficult to believe.
He said: "People ascribe a certain kind of silliness to the movie business. Everybody feels like, ‘In the movies, they do crazy stuff.’ So I don’t think audiences would buy it if it weren’t a true story. You’d just think, ‘Oh, this is absurd.’
"But to me, ‘Argo’ is about storytelling, and in particular, the way fantasy touches a certain place in our collective consciousness.
"I like the incongruity of how in Iran, these people we think of as being revolutionaries or fanatics or whatever, are just as aware of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader as our people are back home."
Ben Affleck pays tribute to Argo inspiration
