Ben Affleck Opens Up About His Past Mistakes, Says the Next 'Batman' Movie Is 'Not a Set Thing'
Ben Affleck is getting candid about his past mistakes and on-screen future.
While promoting his upcoming film, Live by Night, Affleck opened up to The Guardian about the status of his next big screen adventure as Batman.
Before the release of 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it was revealed that Affleck was in talks to direct, star and co-write a screenplay for a standalone Batman film, tentatively titled The Batman.
"That’s the idea," Affleck confirmed. "But it’s not a set thing and there’s no script. If it doesn’t come together in a way I think is really great I’m not going to do it.”
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When asked why he decided to step into the batsuit in the critically panned DC Comics flick in the first place, Affleck was frank with his response. "[My son] Sam thinks his dad is Batman," he said with a laugh. "That’s an incredible feeling."
Affleck, who shares three children Violet, 11, Seraphina, 7, and Sam, 4, with estranged wife Jennifer Garner, admitted that becoming a father "makes you see the world differently."
“I’d always had a strong idea about my values and the direction I wanted to be headed in, then I ran into getting famous and it totally spun me around and I flailed around for a few years," the 44-year-old actor and director shared.
"When you’re a young man in your 20s, part of that is making mistakes and learning from them. I just made those in front of everybody, rather than privately," he continued. "There’s stuff I look back on and kind of cringe at but I always tried to treat other people well. My parents imbued that in me and the mistakes I made were mostly just of the embarrassing kind."
Affleck admitted that living life in one of Hollywood's brightest spotlights comes with a wide array of highs and lows.
"I’ve been lucky. I’ve had my wildest dreams come true, but the price is the Faustian exchange you make where your identity is not your own. You become a public figure and it changes all the rules," he shared. "The press can become invasive and dishonest, and you have to put up with inconvenient stuff like that."
"I’m at peace with paying my own price, what I’m not at peace with is when it invades on my kids’ space and time. They didn’t make any bargains. I try to shelter them as best I can. That’s my only real gripe," Affleck said.