Ben Affleck: Fatherhood 'Changed My Life'

By Brenda Rodriguez and Stephen M. Silverman

08/14/2006 at 10:20 AM EDT

Since getting married and becoming a dad, Ben Affleck is a changed man, he told reporters Friday at a Beverly Hill press conference for his new movie, Hollywoodland.

"I love being a father," the actor, who turns 34 on Tuesday, said. "It's wonderful. It's changed my life. It all sounds like platitudes and clichés, and that's because they're the truth."

He's even proving his babysitting skills with Violet, his 8-month-old daughter with wife Jennifer Garner, 33. Just a few days ago, he said, Garner left him in charge of the baby – but first explained how to feed her.

"(Jennifer said,) 'You take the peaches in the thing and you stir that up and you put that in with a little oatmeal and then put that in with a little bit of the crushed pears.' Then she looked at me and said, 'In all seriousness, is this too complicated?' That's my wife."

Affleck is currently working on a his directorial debut, Gone, Baby, Gone, a mystery based on a Dennis Lehane novel that filmed in Affleck's Boston hometown and stars his brother, Casey.

In Hollywoodland, in theaters Sept. 8, Affleck plays actor George Reeves, who played the Man of Steel on TV's Adventures of Superman and died under mysterious circumstances in 1959.