Ben Affleck is getting a bit more candid about his experience while filming 2017’s Justice League. It’s no secret what occurred during the production of the film and it wasn’t totally rectified until the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2020, which allowed the director to have his vision of the film finally released. Affleck has hinted at some of the unpleasantness that went down when Zack Snyder had to depart the project and was ultimately replaced by Joss Whedon but he’s being a bit more pointed with his comments in a recent interview.
During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Affleck was asked about difficult times he has faced in his recent past. One of the moments discussed was his 2017 announcement that he would no longer direct The Batman, a project that has now been helmed by Matt Reeves. The actor explained that he has come to the realization that he should focus on career choices that makes himself happy, rather than trying to please others and that is when he went into his feelings about shooting Justice League:
“It was really Justice League that was the nadir for me. 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 didn’t mention Joss Whedon by name but it’s clear in his reference to “competing agendas” and the reshooting that Whedon, and perhaps the interference of the studio, created quite the headache for Affleck and his fellow castmates. The actor was also going through his own personal issues while shooting the film but I’m sure the behind-the-scenes hiccups didn’t help his stress. He goes on to explain that is why he ultimately didn’t go through with directing The Batman:
“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.”
Affleck clearly has love for the character and it looks like his time shooting The Flash, based on his recent comments, was some of his best moments shooting as the Caped Crusader. Back in March 2020, the actor told GQ that he “really loved” playing the role in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice but that Justice League was hit with “one problem after another.” Those problems came into focus in July 2020 when his Justice League co-star Ray Fisher alleged that Whedon was abusive during the film’s shoot and that producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg enabled Whedon’s alleged actions. After an internal investigation, Warner Bros. made the announcement in December 2020 that “remedial action” had been taken but they did not provide further specifics.
I admire Affleck’s candor on this without feeling the need to name-drop or point fingers as to who or what made his Justice League experience so problematic. We all know what those issues were since a lot of this played out on social media and it really just needs a little reading between the lines to realize what went wrong here.
What are YOUR thoughts on Ben Affleck’s Justice League comments?