- Ben Affleck has spoken candidly about his time as Batman
- He called the experience “excruciating” at times
- Says he’s no longer interested in superhero roles
Ben Affleck has reflected candidly on his experiences playing Batman, calling the experience “excruciating” at times.
The Armageddon actor played Bruce Wayne and his horned alter-ego in a number of films for DC Studios before James Gunn took the helm. His first appearance arrived in Zack Snyder’s 2016 Man of Steel sequel Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
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Affleck continued to play the role in a two-part Justice League feature, Suicide Squad, Snyder’s Justice League director’s cut, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Flash. However, despite clocking up so much cowl-time, Affleck assured fans that his time as the Dark Knight was far from thrilling.
What’s more, he tells GQ that he’s now lost interest in playing superhero roles.
“There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience,” he told the fashion magazine during a recent cover story.
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“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.”
What else did Ben Affleck say about playing Batman?
Affleck continued, saying that he didn’t help the uncomfortable situation during his time as Batman.
“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,” he told GQ. “I had my own failings, significant failings, in that process and at that time.”
He continued, elaborating on his “failings as an actor.”
“You can watch the various movies and judge… But more of my failings of, in terms of why I had a bad experience, part of it is that what I was bringing to work every day was a lot of unhappiness. So I wasn’t bringing a lot of positive energy to the equation. I didn’t cause problems, but I came in and I did my job and I went home. But you’ve got to do a little bit better than that.”
He added that he “certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience like that.”
“Started to skew too old”
Elsewhere in the same interview, the actor commented on his worries surrounding reaction to DC’s dark take on the character and his extended universe.
“What happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience,” Affleck reasoned.
“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 sh*t, we have a problem.’”
He concluded that any studio’s desire to try to please two separate demographics – in Batman’s case, adult fans and younger viewers – was a bad idea.
“That is a really bad recipe,” he said.
