Ben Affleck Says Reshoots of Justice League Were the Worst Point of His Career

Ben Affleck appeared in the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast and described the Justice League reshoots as the worst experience of his professional career. Warner Bros., after Zack Snyder was forced to step away due to the death of his daughter...

Ben Affleck appeared on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast and described reshooting Justice League as the worst experience of his career.

After Zack Snyder was forced to stop working on the film due to the death of his daughter, Warner Bros. controversially decided to replace him with Joss Whedon to make sweeping changes to the film. In a recent interview with Variety, Snyder estimated that Whedon's reshoots included 60 pages of new content. The final result was a major failure for Warner Brothers in terms of critics and commercial sales. Justice League actress Gal Gadot later accused Whedon of threatening her on set; A claim Whedon denied.

Affleck said about the experience of being in this project:

The Justice League experience was very negative for several reasons. Some of these reasons were related to my personal circumstances, and others were related to a bitter incident that happened at that time. From this experience, I learned how not to make a film of this type; When the studio goes against the filmmaker, they are actually making a big mistake. I was really happy and satisfied that Zach was able to release his version through the Snyder Cut. It was wonderful and I was happy for him from the bottom of my heart. Taking him out of the movie and doing the reshoots that we did was really awful. If I had to name the worst point of my career, it would be that experience.

Affleck further said, referring to the death of Zack Snyder's daughter:

The death of a human overshadows everything. Using that as an excuse to ditch Zack was, in my opinion, one of the most shameful things I've ever seen. It was really disgusting. The overall atmosphere and mood of the reshoots made much of what I didn't see firsthand and later heard from the actors a very uncomfortable experience. I thought to myself that it couldn't get any worse than this. At that time, I was drinking too much and I separated from my wife. That period was very difficult for me personally, but these events, despite all the pain and suffering they entailed, did not affect the film itself.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck previously described the making of Justice League as an experience at the lowest possible level; An experience that made him not want to continue playing the role of Batman. He said at that time:

I didn't like being there at all and it didn't feel like an interesting experience. After that, very bad and terrible things happened. That's when I said to myself that I don't want to continue this work anymore.

In another segment of his interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Affleck confirmed that Lucasfilm had approached him to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, he does not know if he was the first choice of the studio for this project or if the directors at the time were with J. J. Abrams, the final director of the film, were negotiating.

Affleck said about the reason for rejecting this offer:

At that time, I talked to the officials of Lucasfilm, but in the end I felt that this project was not right for me. I told myself that I love Star Wars and I'm a fan of it, but I'm not the right person to direct this movie.

He further explained that he believed that someone with more passion for this collection could have provided a better result. Affleck also mentioned the difficulties of recreating such a popular series and said:

I think someone else with more interest and passion for this collection could do a better job. Recreating such a collection brings many challenges. In fact, you have seen for yourself how this process has gone. It was not easy for them to recreate this collection and some works have performed very well, while others have not been so successful. On the other hand, this collection has many fans, each of whom has very serious and strong opinions about it. So I thought to myself, maybe I can't do it as well as someone else, and I don't want to direct a project that I don't feel like I can be really proud of in the end result.

Listeners can watch the full version of Ben Affleck's interview on the new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.