Ben Affleck sat down with Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter for an interview podcast show called “Awards Chatter” as part of the promotional tour and awards campaign to get his most recently released film A Way Back (2020) to be considered for film award nominations.
The conversation covered a retrospective of his career so far, and Affleck felt it was time to explain and reveal what was truly going on behind the scenes and why he chose the elusive role of the Dark Knight. Many fans felt conflicted about the casting of Affleck to play the iconic character.
However, Affleck has stirringly stated, “I did Batman because I wanted to do it for my kids”. It should also be noted that Affleck closed a picture deal with Warner Bros. to once again don the cape and cowl and play the character in The Flash which is currently slated for release in 2022.
When asked about what the character truly meant to him, Affleck commented, “I wanted to do something that my son would dig, I mean, my kids didn’t see Argo.” Affleck then went on to explain that “[the director] Zack [Synder] wanted to do a version of the Frank Miller Dark Knight graphic novel series, which is a really good version of that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why things go the way they do in the movie business, and just because your face is on the poster doesn’t mean that you’re dictating all of those things — and even if you were, that they would go well.” Affleck continued, “I wore the suit to my son’s birthday party, which was worth every moment of suffering on Justice League.”
In addition to the reasoning as to why Affleck decided to take on the major role. He also revealed that during the filming of Justice League an alcohol addiction was starting to return. “I started drinking too much around the time of Justice League, and it’s a hard thing to confront and face and deal with.” It was clear to see that a variety of factors were causing a schism in Affleck regarding his mental health and professional career as an actor.
Reporter Luiz Fernando commented on Twitter: “Both Ben & Gal got things sorted out taking the issue to the higher-ups back then. Ben probably negotiated to end his contract and was allowed to do other stuff. Gal & Patty got full control over WW. Ray took a different approach. Maybe that’s why he’s getting different results.” Fernando also added, “I think that he [Ray Fisher] could have had a better outcome if he tried to speak with the WB higher-ups, instead of taking this case to the DCFilms leadership who were responsible for Joss coming in at the end of the day.”
As of now, Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, and Ray Fisher have commented on their harrowing experience of Justice League, which notoriously underwent radical reshoots as part of major studio notes and rewrites. Ben Affleck will appear in the director’s cut, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which premieres on HBO Max in March 2021.
