One month ago Warner Bros. announced that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in Zack Synder's new film, "Batman vs. Superman." On Monday, the actor finally spoke out about the role and the backlash he received when he was cast.
During an interview on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," Affleck admitted he was skeptical about doing the role because he thought he was too old. He said, "They called me up and said, 'Do you wanna do this?' And I thought, 'Well, I'm not 25, man. Are you sure about this?' "
However he said that once he saw the director's vision for the character he was fully committed. "[Director] Zack Snyder has this incredible take on it, and obviously you can't do what Christian did, those movies are amazing, so he wants to do something different. So I thought this is a brilliant way to do this and I really know how to hook into this," Affleck said.
Affleck also said that the character would be completely different from Christopher Nolan and Christan Bale's interpretation of the Caped Crusader.
Affleck also revealed that when he accepted the film, the studio warned him that he would get attacked on the Internet. Affleck said, "Listen, we want to talk to you because people go through this process and it can be trying. I said, 'What do you mean?' 'We want to show you some of the reactions that past people who have been cast have gotten, like on the Internet and stuff.'"
The actor was immediately sent e-mails about other actors who had received negative reception when they were cast in specific films. Affleck said, "They send me [reactions for] people who were in these movies who did a great job and they'd say, 'Kill himmmm!' You can't say that before a movie comes out. It doesn't matter what you think then, it matters what you think when you see the movie."
Affleck was also adamant about not being scared of reactions and even mentioned his Oscar snub. However, when he read the first comment he said he was scared. He said "I'm a big boy. They said just don't use the Internet for a couple of days.... I handle [expletive]. I'm very tough. I saw the announcement, I look down on the first comment...the first one just goes, 'Nooooooooo!' "
"Batman vs. Superman" stars Henry Cavill, Diane Lane, Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne. The film is slated for release on June 17, 2015.
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