Entertainment

Why Batfleck Almost Didn't Happen

by Tanya Ghahremani

Ben Affleck has been keeping pretty quiet about his upcoming role as one of the most major comic book characters of all time, Batman, since the news was announced this past summer — probably something to do with the fact that the entire Internet seemed to band together and collectively throw a tantrum about the casting. But now that talk has finally seemed to die down (a bit), it seems he's finally talking a little more about the role in interviews. Like this one, for example, with 411mania.com: In a new interview, Ben Affleck commented that he was "reluctant" to play Batman, and thought he "didn’t fit the traditional mold" of what Bruce Wayne was supposed to be. Cue Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful"...

"Initially, I was reluctant as I felt I didn’t fit the traditional mold. But once Zack showed me the concept, and that it would be both different from the great movies that [Christopher Nolan] and [Christian Bale] made, but still in keeping with tradition, I was excited," Affleck said. "Doing something different and new is always tricky and part of the thrill and the risk is that initially it confounds expectations. The truth is, it’s the movie and the execution of it is what all the actors depend on and I believe in Zack’s vision."

Affleck will be appearing in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, Batman vs. Superman, in which he will — as the title suggests — face off against Superman. Of this iteration of Batman, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara has previously said that Affleck will appear "tired and weary and seasoned" because he's too old for this shit now, his back hurts, and he just wants to go home and watch Treme on DVR because he's got like three seasons of that show on there and it's really good but he's just never in the mood to watch it. Or something. Affleck reportedly told 411mania.com that Tsujihara's comments were true, but didn't elaborate more than that because he wants it to be a surprise.

He also didn't make any mention of Matt Damon, which is sad, because this obviously needs to happen: