Ben Affleck‘s career has taken in just about everything you could hope for. As an actor, he has been in acclaimed drama movies, huge action movies, and broad comedy movies. He has also had success as a director, including helming an Oscar-winning movie based on a true story with Argo.
But with the best movies inevitably comes the worst movies, as any actor can likely attest. And there’s one Ben Affleck movie that the actor and director would rather not remember. He didn’t have much joy while he was making it.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck opened up about a great many things and was in candid form when reflecting on superhero movie Justice League.
Famously, the DC movie was originally directed by Zack Snyder, and then picked up by Joss Whedon when Snyder stepped down due to a family tragedy. For Affleck, it made him completely reassess his relationship with future Batman movies.
“I was going to direct a Batman, and [Justice League] made me go: ‘I’m out. I never want to do any of this again. I’m not suited’. That was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in a business which is full of some shitty experiences. It broke my heart.”
He added that things didn’t get any better when Whedon took over. “I started to drink too much. I was back at the hotel in London, it was either that or jump out the window. And I just thought: ‘This isn’t the life I want. My kids aren’t here. I’m miserable’. You want to go to work and find something interesting to hang onto, rather than just wearing a rubber suit, and most of it you’re just standing against the computer screen going: ‘If this nuclear waste gets loose, we’ll…’
“That’s fine. I don’t condescend to that or put it down, but I got to a point where I found it creatively not satisfying. Also just, you’re sweaty and exhausted. And I thought: ‘I don’t want to participate in this in any way. And I don’t want to squander any more of my life, of which I have a limited amount’.”