Ben Affleck Practically Solid Ex Jennifer Garner In ‘Animals’ As His Spouse

As Ben Affleck takes the lead in his subsequent directorial outing, he’s recounting the casting recreation of musical chairs that nearly resulted in his onscreen reunion with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

The co-writer, director and star of Animals, premiering Oct. 9 on Netflix, defined how he got here to take over the lead position of Mark Kimball from his pal Matt Damon, after initially casting Garner to play Mark’s spouse Abigail within the crime thriller.

“I believed, God, Jen Garner could be superb for this position,” he instructed Leisure Weekly. “It additionally has the additional advantage of, like, each of us will see our youngsters extra as a result of we do every week and every week and forwards and backwards. I believed, effectively, we are able to coordinate our schedules round it.”

Affleck added, “She will be able to deliver one thing attention-grabbing that she hasn’t [done], that I form of know she will do, that I don’t assume she had an opportunity to do in a single film.”

However being {that a} comparable kidnapping thriller was popping out with A24’s Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest, Affleck pulled the plug on that model of Animals two weeks earlier than manufacturing was set to start. “It’s exhausting sufficient to make a great film. You don’t want these sorts of headwinds,” he defined.

Just a few months later, Affleck’s ardour for the venture reignited the manufacturing, however Damon was busy working with Christopher Nolan.

“Matt was sadly doing one other lesser movie, clearly, with Odyssey. He selected a smaller director and a smaller movie and a smaller position for his profession, and I believe he’s gonna endure for it. He’ll remorse this selection,” joked Affleck. “A greater actor needed to play the half, naturally.”

Deciding to tackle the position of Mark himself introduced one other difficulty. “I talked to Jen, and he or she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do this. You simply get baggage,’” he recalled.

“I’d like to work along with her, frankly,” added Affleck of his ex-wife. “She’s fabulous, and we’re actually good mates, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have now an awesome factor. I nonetheless would wanna work along with her sooner or later, however what you don’t wanna do is take the viewers’s baggage and have it work in opposition to you, you already know?”

Finally, Affleck ended up casting Kerry Washington after attending to know one another throughout the 2023 Hollywood strikes. “She’s very polished, however she’s additionally very heat. I believed, Oh my God, she’s superb for this,” he mentioned.

Co-written by Affleck, Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, Animals stars Affleck as Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, whose son is kidnapped, giving him and spouse Abigail (Washington) a number of hours to get their fingers soiled and give you the ransom cash.