Ben Affleck has determined that filming Justice League was a “low point” in his acting career.
The actor-producer-director made a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he opened up to host Josh Horowitz about why making the movie was such a negative experience. Affleck played Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 2017 superhero pic.
“The truth is, the experience of Justice League for me was so, so negative for lots of different reasons,” he admitted. “Some of which having to do with where I was personally, some of which having to do with the tragedy that happened during the time, and also the fact that I really saw how not to make a movie like that when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You’re really making a mistake. That was what really doomed that.”
After 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice became a major critical disappointment and didn’t meet Warner Bros.’ box office expectations, the studio wanted Zack Snyder’s Justice League to be a lighter tone, despite the filmmaker’s darker creative vision for the film.
During post-production, Snyder stepped away from the movie following the death of his daughter. Warner Bros. then brought in director Joss Whedon to oversee extensive reshoots, which ultimately lightened the tone.
“Boy, that was shitty,” Affleck said. “Him being taken off that movie, and the reshoots that we did — if you want the low point of my career, [it] was that.”
Horowitz also asked the Animals star and director if he had any kind of “epiphany” while working on Justice League as he saw “this film kind of collapsing in front of you.”
“Somebody’s death by suicide, that eclipses everything,” Affleck replied. “And the way in which that was, I thought, frankly, used as an excuse… I just thought that was one of the shittiest things I’ve ever seen. It was so gross. And then the whole environment and vibe, much of which I wasn’t privy to, but that I sort of heard about secondhand in terms of Ray [Fisher] and Gal [Gadot] and other people’s experiences. It was just like, ‘Wow, this is about as gross as it gets.'”
Several years later, fans finally got to see Snyder’s version of the film. A Justice League director’s cut was released in 2021 on HBO Max following a global fan campaign, a strategy shift for the streamer and Warner Bros. investing $70 million to finish visual effects and editing.
“I was really glad and gratified that Zack got to release [his cut], and he did it in a very kind of canny way… manipulated his way into getting his thing released, which was fucking great,” Affleck said. “I was really happy for him.”