Ben Affleck retired from the role of Gotham’s Caped Crusader in the DCEU, thanks to the encouragement of his long-time friend Matt Damon. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck shared how difficult it was playing Batman in the action movie Justice League. Following his challenging filming experience, it turns out that Damon ultimately had Affleck’s back and influenced him to part ways with the character for the sake of his happiness.
“I had a really nadir experience around Justice League for a lot of different reasons,” Affleck explained. “Not blaming anybody; there’s a lot of things that happened. But really, what it was is that I wasn’t happy. I didn’t like being there. I didn’t think it was interesting. And then some really shitty things, awful things happened. But, that’s when I was like, I’m not going to do that anymore.”
“I talked to you about it, and you were a principal influence on that decision,” Affleck said to Damon during the interview. “I want to do the things that would bring me joy. Then we went and did Last Duel, and I had fun every day on this movie.”
The star explained how he now enjoys more unlikeable and complex roles instead of the typical superhero and good guy parts – referring again to his time on Ridley Scott’s historical drama The Last Duel with co-star Damon.
“I wasn’t the star. I wasn’t likeable. I was a villain,” the actor said. “I wasn’t all the things I thought I was supposed to be when I started out, and yet it was a wonderful experience. And it was all just stuff that came along that I wasn’t chasing.”
Although Affleck is saying goodbye to Bruce Wayne, fans got to see him take up the dark cape once more in The Flash. According to the star this was an excellent send off to his time as the iconic character and even has some of his favourite Batman scenes ever filmed.