Ben Affleck Admits He Used AI a Lot on His Upcoming Netflix Thriller ‘Animals’

Ben Affleck has become one of Hollywood’s most visible champions of artificial intelligence. He founded the AI company InterPositive in 2022, and Netflix acquired it earlier this year, later confirming in an SEC filing that it paid $587 million. Affleck joined the streamer as a senior adviser as part of the deal.

The acquisition did not land quietly. Rest of World reported that it could put visual effects workers around the world at risk, since InterPositive’s tools automate work like color grading, relighting and continuity fixes. That backdrop makes his next release more interesting than usual.

Now Affleck has revealed that he used AI on that film. Deadline reports that the technology was part of the production of ‘Animals,’ the Netflix thriller he directed, co-wrote and stars in. Speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime summit in Los Angeles on Sept. 30, he told Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw that he used AI for lots of things in that movie.

He was reluctant to say exactly what. Affleck explained that his business is about fostering the illusion of reality, and he compared it to a magician who would rather not spoil the trick. Revealing the details, he suggested, would undercut the effect.

He did frame the film as a good example of using the technology ethically, because it is a very human movie. He noted that the story is not set in space and has no visual effects, but that AI let the team work faster in some cases, mostly in post-production, and do things they otherwise could not.

That fits the larger argument he has been making. Affleck has pushed back on what he calls AI propaganda, insisting the technology will be additive and is not a threat to directors or jobs. On the same panel, he said he does not believe AI will ever let a filmmaker simply type in a prompt and get a movie that people want to see.

Not everyone is convinced. Fortune notes that, according to Labor Department data, the industry shed 49,000 jobs between 2016 and 2026, a 21% decline. For workers already watching their field shrink, a famous filmmaker’s reassurance may only go so far.

The film itself centers on Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate played by Affleck, whose son is kidnapped. Kerry Washington plays his wife, Abigail, and the cast also includes Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun. Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, and Matt Damon is among the producers.

When their son is kidnapped, an LA mayoral candidate and his wife scramble to raise the ransom while making choices that could tear their world apart.

Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, with Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez… pic.twitter.com/P2PGtOq4Kk

— Netflix (@netflix) September 15, 2026

It is Affleck’s first directorial effort since ‘Air.’ The trailer sells a tense crime thriller about a couple forced to decide what they are willing to reveal to save their child, and there is no obvious sign of where any AI tools were used.

That may be exactly the point. When ‘Animals’ opens in select theaters and on Netflix on Oct. 9, viewers will get to judge for themselves whether they can tell where the technology was involved.

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