Ben Affleck is currently promoting both his new equity-first production company and the biopic Air, but of course the Hollywood Reporter is going to ask him some questions about Batman. He’s briefly appearing as the DC hero in The Flash, but that doesn’t mean he’s keen to return to the character in a greater capacity… especially not after Justice League.
That ensemble DC film was, in Affleck’s own words, the “highest-rated movie” of his career. But ratings don’t do much about the “monstrous taste” the notoriously troubled film left in Affleck’s mouth. While he says that he “liked a lot of the stuff” he did in Batman v Superman, Justice League was an entirely different story: “Justice League … You could teach a seminar on all the reasons why this is how not to do it. Ranging from production to bad decisions to horrible personal tragedy,” he said. “The genius, and the silver lining, is that Zack Snyder eventually went to AT&T and was like, ‘Look, I can get you four hours of content’… and now [Zack Snyder’s Justice League] is my highest-rated movie on IMDb.”
Even still, Affleck said that Justice League “was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in a business which is full of some shitty experiences.” Because he thought that he “wasn’t suited” to the style of production — and that acting in a costume in front of a computer screen was no longer “creatively satisfying” — he even bowed out of directing a Batman film that he was said he was going to be a part of. He was so miserable that he turned to self-destruction.
Now, though? “I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC,” Affleck states. “Absolutely not. I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that.”
The Flash will release in theatres on June 16, 2023.
Leave a Reply