When Ben Affleck came on board to play Batman in the DC Extended Universe, he was the most high-profile actor taking on the role. And even though he did appear in a bunch of DCEU films as the Caped Crusader, it all ended even before he could get his solo film in the franchise. All that, and the direction DC films took, seems to have turned Affleck off superhero films altogether. (Also read: Ben Affleck opens up on reasons behind his divorce from Jennifer Lopez, calls the episode 'sort of embarrassing')
Ben Affleck says being Batman was excruciating
In a new interview with GQ, the actor spoke about how playing Batman in films like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Justice League was 'excruciating' for him. "There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience. And they don’t all have to do with the simple dynamic of, say, being in a superhero movie or whatever. I am not interested in going down that particular genre again, not because of that bad experience, but just: I’ve lost interest in what was of interest about it to me. But I certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience like that. A lot of it was misalignment of agendas, understandings, expectations. And also by the way, I wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either. I had my own failings, significant failings, in that process and at that time."
Ben Affleck reveals his son was too scared to watch those films
During the interview, the Argo actor reminisced how the superhero films in DC had gotten darker, which further turned him off the genre. He added, "But what happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie. And so when I saw that I was like, “Oh shit, we have a problem.” Then I think that’s when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes. Then you have two entities, two people really wanting to do something different and that is a really bad recipe."
Ben Affleck's Batman run
{{/usCountry}}During the interview, the Argo actor reminisced how the superhero films in DC had gotten darker, which further turned him off the genre. He added, "But what happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience. Like even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie. And so when I saw that I was like, “Oh shit, we have a problem.” Then I think that’s when you had a filmmaker that wanted to continue down that road and a studio that wanted to recapture all the younger audience at cross purposes. Then you have two entities, two people really wanting to do something different and that is a really bad recipe."
Ben Affleck's Batman run
{{/usCountry}}Ben Affleck first played Batman in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which starred Henry Cavill as Superman. Affleck also appeared as Batman in Suicide Squad and Justice League. He was set to get his own solo film, The Batman, which he was to direct as well. However, the DCEU folded in 2023. Affleck will be seen next in The Accountant 2, which will be released next month.