When Ben Affleck was announced as playing The Dark Knight in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Internet virtually exploded, with opinions ranging from those who felt that it’s the worst thing to happen to the character since bat nipples, to those who simply said that Affleck was “the bomb in Phantoms.”
In an interview with the Sunday Times here in the UK, Affleck talked about donning the cowl in the hope that it could help him develop some of his smaller independent movies, “I hope it’s true,” the actor said with half a smile. “You’re always thinking about the momentum you’re trying to build in your career. There are dual thought processes – on the one hand, you’re going, ‘What’s interesting to me?’ On the other hand, you’re thinking, ‘How do I give myself the opportunity to do those things?’ And that calculus, I think, consciously or subconsciously, is part of any career though process.”
“That terror when I’m about to start something can be motivating,” he continues. “It helps me kick my ass into gear, because I think, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna ruin the movie, I’m gonna not know what to do.’ That’s definitely a good, driving factor for me. My theory is that once you lose that, you’re kind of going downhill.”
Affleck went on to talk about the reaction to his casting saying, “I don’t worry too much about what other people say about me versus my own ideas and standards, what I’d like to do. Particularly given that when I set out, in 2002 or so, to be a director, if I had listened to all the things people said about whether or not I’d be successful and what kind of movies I’d make, I never would have done it. It was a really good lesson in self-determination and trusting my instincts.”
And while he can’t talk about the movie (for obvious reason), he did hint that his Batman would be full of “rage”, “I think it’s a necessity, historically, in the tradition of these films,” he said. “For me, anger is so deeply buried and contained that when it does kind of come out, it comes out in stronger bursts. I tend to be respectful, polite, get along, put up with, put up with, put up with… then, when it finally emerges, it’s not something I have a ton of control over. I’m not gonna go into a Wolverine berserker rage, but I do have a, I do… that is an interesting thing that you point out. That’s my personality.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25, 2016 with Zack Snyder directing a cast that includes returning Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent) and Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) alongside Ben Affleck (Argo) as Batman, Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious 6) as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me) as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons (The Borgias) as Alfred Pennyworth and Holly Hunter (The Piano), Callan Mulvey (300: Rise of an Empire), Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) and Scoot McNairy (Argo) in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
Originally published September 15, 2014. Updated November 29, 2022.
