Alison Sweeney and Son Ben at Green Week Event

Days of our Lives star and The Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney at the DOOL Adopt-a-Park event for "Green Week" with son Ben.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck Stroll in New York

Ben Affleck and wife Jennifer Garner take a stroll with daughter Violet in New York.

Ben Affleck and Violet Take In NYC

Ben Affleck and daughter Violet enjoy the day in New York City.

Ben Affleck Takes His Second Shot

Ben Affleck is getting ready to re-launch his career following a string of lackluster movies. He's hoping that his professional career will flourish the same way his personal life has over the past few years with wife Jennifer Garner and daughter Violet, almost 2. He's staking it all on his directing debut in Gone Baby Gone (which I've heard is fabulous).

In a revealing new interview in the November issue of Details magazine, the actor discusses his directorial debut, leaving Los Angeles, and the decisions he has made since Good Will Hunting came out in 1997.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

On his film Gone Baby Gone:
“I feel like (Gone Baby Gone) is the linchpin for my life. My career. I have a lot riding on it. I want [the film] to work. Badly. I mean, a shitty movie comes out on 2,800 screens? I’ve been there and it’s embarrassing.”

On deciding to direct the film:“That’s why there’s something really great about directing-about having authorship over something. If you don’t like this movie, I’m the guy to see. I’m the guy to criticize. I take some measure of comfort in that. It’s fair, at least.”

On his directorial debut:“Listen, I’ve gone out and directed a movie and made it really f—king good. If the movie’s good, people will like it and go see it. All the rest of it is bullshit.”

On what’s at stake with his new film:“It’s pretty simple. If people don’t go see it – I’m f—ked.”

On dating Jennifer Lopez:
“It was probably bad for my career. What happens is this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody. I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and [the media] mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that. Then, in concert with some movies that didn’t work…”

On living in L.A.:“I’d be surprised if I’m still living here in a couple of years. Professionally it would be difficult. But that’s not as important as that other thing.”

Ben Affleck says Violet is a Happy Girl

Ben Affleck is a very proud dad and says daughter Violet is "the best thing that ever happened to me" in the new issue of Parade magazine.

"She is happy as hell and talks like crazy!" says Affleck. "She has the ability to make me smile and feel so good and be so charmed that, when I'm not with her for a while, all I want to do is go home, just to be around her again."

Although he's making her childhood as happy as possible, he admits that wasn't always the case for him as a child.

"I grew up in a home environment where I wasn't getting esteem for anything I did," he admits. "I played sports, but I wasn't great at them... There was alcoholism at home because of my father. I changed schools [at 8 years old], and I didn't really know the kids at the new school. I felt alone."

Although Violet is only 2, the proud dad hopes to minimize the same esteem issues for his own daughter and is already looking at schools in Los Angeles, New York, and Georgia.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck Stroll with Violet in NYC

Jennifer Garner and daughter Violet, 22 months, take a stroll with dad Ben Affleck in New York City.