KEY POINTS

  • Ben Affleck said "Justice League" was a bad experience due to a "confluence of things"
  • The film marked the final time he portrayed Batman
  • He is set to appear in "The Flash" later this year

Ben Affleck described his time shooting “Justice League” as “the worst experience.” In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor also opened up about his decision to drop out of “The Batman.”

“I looked at it and thought, ‘I’m not going to be happy doing this. The person who does this should love it,’” he told the publication. “You’re supposed to always want these things, and I probably would have loved doing it at 32 or something. But it was the point where I started to realize it’s not worth it,” he said about taking on the project, which he later abandoned so he could go to rehab for alcoholism instead.

“It’s just a wonderful benefit of reorienting and recalibrating your priorities that once it started being more about the experience, I felt more at ease,” Affleck added.

The actor then opened up about his "worst experience" shooting “Justice League,” which he attributed to a “confluence of things.”

“It was really ‘Justice League’ that was the nadir for me,” he said. “That was a bad experience because of a confluence of things: my own life, my divorce, being away too much, the competing agendas and then director Zack Snyder’s personal tragedy and the reshooting. It just was the worst experience. It was awful,” he added.

He also admitted that the project was “everything” he didn’t like. “That became the moment where I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ It’s not even about, like, ‘Justice League’ was so bad. Because it could have been anything.”

“Justice League” was the final time Affleck portrayed Batman. Despite walking away from the role, however, he will play Bruce Wayne one more time in “The Flash,” which will hit theaters later this year. Affleck said the upcoming film will “put a really nice finish on my experience with that character.”

“I have never said this—this is hot off the presses—but maybe my favorite scenes in terms of Batman and the interpretation of Batman that I have done, were in ‘The Flash’ movie,” he added.

Ben Affleck stars in "The Tender Bar" as a bartender who steps in to help raise his fiercely intelligent nephew after the boy is abandoned by his famous radio DJ dad
Ben Affleck stars in "The Tender Bar" as a bartender who steps in to help raise his fiercely intelligent nephew after the boy is abandoned by his famous radio DJ dad GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA via AFP / Amy Sussman