Ben Affleck on Batman: ‘I’ve Lost Interest’ and It Was ‘Too Scary’ for My Son

Ben Affleck has opened up once again about his experience playing Batman, saying it was a tough and unhappy time for him. In an interview with GQ magazine, Affleck shared why he no longer wants to do superhero movies and why his version of Batman might have been too dark for younger audiences—including his own son.

Affleck first played Batman in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and continued in other DC movies like Justice League and The Flash. However, he has been very open about how difficult that time was for him.

“There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience,” Affleck told GQ. “And they don’t all have to do with just being in a superhero movie. I am not interested in that genre anymore, not because of that bad experience, but just because I’ve lost interest in what made it exciting for me in the first place.”

He admitted that part of the problem was miscommunication between him, the studio, and the filmmakers. “A lot of it was misalignment of agendas, understandings, expectations,” he explained. “I wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either. I had my own failings.”

One of the biggest problems, according to Affleck, was that his Batman was too dark. The film’s tone wasn’t appealing to younger fans, and even his own son was too scared to watch it.

“What happened was it started to skew too old for a big part of the audience,” Affleck said. “Even my own son at the time was too scared to watch the movie. And when I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh shit, we have a problem.’”

Affleck said this created conflict between the filmmaker and the studio. The director wanted to keep things dark, while the studio wanted to bring back younger audiences. “Then you have two people really wanting to do something different, and that is a really bad recipe,” he added.

Looking back, Affleck admitted that he wasn’t in a good place during those years. “Part of why I had a bad experience was that I was bringing a lot of unhappiness to work,” he said. “I wasn’t bringing a lot of positive energy. I didn’t cause problems, but I just came in, did my job, and went home. But you have to do a little bit better than that.”

Now, Affleck is focused on his production company, Artists Equity, where he hopes to avoid the same problems he faced during his Batman years. “I want to put together partnerships with filmmakers, cast, and studios that are aligned, where that kind of misalignment doesn’t happen,” he explained.

Even though Affleck enjoyed his creative approach to Batman—as an older, broken version of Bruce Wayne—he knows that the movie didn’t work for everyone. And now, he’s ready to move on.

Affleck’s Batman era is over, and it looks like he won’t be returning to superhero films anytime soon.

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