Ben Affleck On The Very Wholesome Reason He Took The Batman Job

As part of a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Ben Affleck discussed why he took on the role of Batman, and it's for a pretty wholesome reason.

He explained that he did it to make his kids happy. "I did Batman because I wanted to do it for my kids," Affleck said. "I wanted to do something that my son would dig. I mean, my kids didn't see Argo."

Affleck's first appearance as Batman came in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was followed by appearances as the Caped Crusader in Suicide Squad and Justice League. Affleck is coming back once more to play Batman in 2022's The Flash.

Affleck recalled the experience of working with Snyder and how they originally had plans to do something different with his time as Batman.

"Zack [Snyder] wanted to do a version of the Frank Miller Dark Knight graphic novel series, which is a really good version of that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why things go the way they do in the movie business, and just because your face is on the poster doesn't mean that you're dictating all of those things--and even if you were, that they would go well."

Working on Justice League was not a great time in Affleck's life, as he remarked that it was around this time that he started drinking too much. He says he always sobered up before he came to set, but this isn't the case for everyone he knows.

"If you knew how many actors and directors and writers were alcoholics or compulsive in some way--I mean, it's the most ordinary thing in the world in Hollywood," he said. "I've worked with actors who showed up drunk! And that was not me. I drank, like, alone in my living room and just passed out, like, with scotch. But I got sober."

While the experience of making Justice League might not have been the smoothest or most enjoyable, Affleck remarked that it was all worth it in the end.

"I wore the suit to my son's birthday party, which was worth every moment of suffering on Justice League," he said.

The next actor to play Batman is Robert Pattinson, who is suiting up for The Batman from director Matt Reeves.