Like any entertainer who’s spent decades in Hollywood, Ben Affleck’s career as an A-list actor and director has had its ups and downs. But when considering the low point of his work, the “Animals” filmmaker and former Batman has a clear answer: the process of shooting (and reshooting) “Justice League.”
“Boy, that was s–tty, (Zack Snyder) being taken off that movie and the reshoots we did,” Affleck told Josh Horowitz on his podcast “Happy Sad Confused” on Monday. “If you want the low point of my career, it was that.”
Snyder, the architect of the early DCEU (the interconnected DC Comics cinematic universe that spanned from 2013’s “Man of Steel” to 2023’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”), directed Affleck in his debut as Bruce Wayne/Batman in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Snyder was set to direct the crossover event film “Justice League” as his third entry in the franchise, but he departed from that project following disputes with leadership and the death by suicide of his 20-year-old daughter, Autumn Snyder.
“Somebody’s death by suicide is, that eclipses everything,” Affleck said. “And then the way in which that was, I thought, frankly, used as an excuse, I just thought was one of the s–ttiest I’d ever seen, you know? And it was so gross, and then the whole environment and vibe, much of which I wasn’t privy to, but that I sort of heard about secondhand in terms of Ray (Fisher) and Gal (Gadot) and other people’s experiences, it was just like, ‘Wow. This is about as gross as it gets.’”
You can watch the full interview below:
Joss Whedon came on to replace Snyder and get “Justice League” across the finish line through a series of reshoots. Beyond some on-set controversy Affleck alluded to, the film was both a critical and a commercial failure, making only roughly $661 million (a healthy sum, to be sure, but a far cry from what you would expect from the first live-action team-up film for DC’s most iconic characters).
Affleck alluded to this experience as contributing to his Batman solo film (which he would’ve directed) falling apart. That film, which reportedly would’ve heavily involved Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke and Arkham Asylum, eventually gave way to Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson-led “The Batman.”
“I liked playing that character, particularly this sort of older, broken, very much derived from, wholly derived from Frank Miller’s book (“The Dark Knight Returns”),” Affleck said. “That’s what we were trying to do with that ‘Batman v. Superman.’”
Eventually, Snyder’s vision for “Justice League” saw the light of day in a four-hour extended cut (twice the length of the theatrical release) that premiered on HBO Max. Affleck commended his former director for helping bring the project to life through the use of a rather incessant fan campaign to “Release the Snyder Cut.”
“I really saw how not to make a movie like that, which is when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker, you know, you’re really making a mistake,” Affleck said of the whole experience. “That was what really doomed that. I was really glad and gratified that Zack got to release — and he did it in a really canny way, manipulated his way into getting his thing released, which was f–king great, and I was really happy for him.”
Watch Affleck’s full “Happy Sad Confused” interview in the video above.
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