Affleck wins best picture Oscar for 'Argo'

UNDATED (WHDH) -- An emotional Ben Affleck found himself once again accepting an Oscar, this time for the movie “Argo.”

Affleck was both in front of and behind the camera as an actor and the director.

“I was here 15 years ago or something… and I had no idea what I was doing. I was just a kid -- I went out and I never thought I’d be back here,” Affleck said in his acceptance speech.

It was a defining moment in the Cambridge native's young career. He would go on to direct “The Town” and “Gone, Baby Gone.” But it took “Argo” a story about the rescue of six diplomats from Iran during the hostage crisis to get him back on Hollywood’s biggest stage.

“I want to my wife, who I don't normally associate with Iran, but I want to thank her for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It is work, but it’s the best kind of work and there’s no one I’d rather work with,” Affleck said in his speech.

His former acting teacher at Cambrige Rindge and Latin, Gerry Speca, remembers Ben as a teenager with a dream.

“It’s kind of cool to see someone you knew him when he was 14 and he’s like, ‘I'm going to be an actor,’ and then he was -- and a good one,” Speca said.

Speca, who now teaches English at Bentley University, admits he misses the days when Affleck and Matt Damon were plotting their path to stardom.

“I kind of miss that they were like going into the cafeteria and holding meetings and having conversations about what auditions they were going all that kind of stuff,” Speca said.

When Affleck sat down with 7's Kim Khazei last fall, he opened up about the pressure behind making a major movie.

“I feel like every time I make a movie I just feel like I'm going to die if it doesn’t work. So there’s a lot of pressure that goes into it,” said Affleck.

This time, it clearly worked.