Los Angeles, Jan 8: Actor-director Ben Affleck has spoken out against his Justice League experience calling it one of his “worst” experiences ever.
During an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Friday, the 49-year-old Oscar winner was asked about difficult times in his recent past.
Elaborating the statement, the “Gone Girl” actor said the realization dawned on him that he should focus on career choices that interest him, rather than just work for the pleasure of others.
“Directing ‘Batman’ is a good example. I looked at it and thought, ‘I’m not going to be happy doing this. The person who does this should love it.’
“You’re supposed to always want these things, and I probably would have loved doing it at 32 or something.
“But it was the point where I started to realize it’s not worth it. It’s just a wonderful benefit of reorienting and recalibrating your priorities that once it started being more about the experience, I felt more at ease,” the “Argo” actor said.
“The Good Will Hunting” actor was set to direct, write, produce and star in a standalone Batman film as part of the DCEU, but dropped out of it, after a combination of factors.
Eventually, Matt Reeves took over the project and chose to feature a younger Batman with a different story. The film is set to release on March 4, and will star Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight.
Taking with the Times, Affleck called the 2017 theatrical cut of the Justice League as the “nadir” of his career and one of his all time worst experiences.
Listing reasons, he said it was difficult to shoot for him after director Zack Snyder exit the film after the death of his daughter Autumn in May 2017.
“It was really Justice League that was the nadir for me,” said Affleck, who retired as the DC hero in 2019 but will reprise his role in “The Flash” in November 2022.
“That was a bad experience because of a confluence of things: my own life, my divorce, being away too much, the competing agendas and then Zack’s personal tragedy and the reshooting. It just was the worst experience. It was awful. It was everything that I didn’t like about this,” Affleck said.
“That became the moment where I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ It’s not even about, like, Justice League was so bad. Because it could have been anything.” Affleck had told GQ back in 2020, while saying he “really loved” portraying the superhero in the 2016 Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
In 2021, the four hour director’s cut to the Justice League was released titled the “Snyder Cut” which in addition to having a lot more extra content and several differences from the theatrical cut received critical acclaim.
Affleck started his career with “The Dark End of the Street” in 1981 and recently returned to headlines after his Bennifer moments.
