Simply Abu Dhabi XXXI

H ere, Ben talks about sweating in his Batsuit plus how he took his son Samuel to visit the set of his latest film. He also talks about where Batman’s psyche is at in this latest movie… BEN, THIS IS SUCH A HUGE MOVIE WITH SO MUCH ANTICIPATION AHEAD OF ITS RELEASE—DID YOU FEELTHATPRESSUREWHILEYOUWEREMAKINGIT? BEN AFFLECK: I haven’t worked on a movie where I haven’t felt pressure to do well. Pressure to succeed. I’ve never gone into anything and thought, ‘Ah f-k it, I’m sure it will be fine.’ [laughs] do you know what I mean? I think once you take that attitude you go down a bad road and it doesn’t guarantee success. I’ve worked really, really hard on movies that didn’t work but I figure you have the best odds of making something that’s interesting if you… because you know the one thing you can control, you can’t control howmuch talent you have or what your creativity is, but you can control how hard you work. WHATDOESBATMANHAVETHATDOESN’TEXIST IN ANY OTHER PROJECT OR ROLE THAT YOU’VE PLAYED? BEN AFFLECK: Well, for one thing, it’s such an iconic character. It’s been played by a lot of great actors before, the audience already has huge preconceived notions of who Batman is when you come to it, so not only are they looking at, ‘What are you showing me?’ But they’re thinking, ‘How does this fit in with what I already think I know or what I expect?’ CANYOUTALKABOUTTHEEXPERIENCEOFHAVING JOSS WHEDON COMING IN TO FINISH THE WORK THAT ZACK SNYDER STARTED AND HOW DID AFFECT YOURWORKANDTHEMOVIE INEND? BENAFFLECK: Joss came in and Zack had a terrible and tragic family event and the movie wasn’t finished. And we got really lucky that as good a director as Joss came in and did do the work. He and Zack talked about obviously what he wanted to do but Zack just wasn’t in a place to be working and Joss came in and, you know, finished the movie and as a consequence I think we kind of benefit from Zack’s tone, his dNA and also the kind of dust that Joss sprinkled on it. YOUHAVE SAIDBEFORE YOUR SON SAMUEL IS A BIG FAN OF BATMAN—DID YOU BRING HIM TO THE SET OF THIS FILM? BENAFFLECK: I brought him to the set yeah. He’s still young. He gets a little scared of like real grown-ups in costumes and stuff. I think it weirds him out—do you know what I mean? I actually get scared of that too. [laughs] But he’s into it, he’s into the thing, he knows I’m going to have to cover his eyes for some of the scary parts. I showed him a few scenes from Batman vs Superman, but he was like, ‘dad, I do not like the monster, he’s too scary for me!’ [laughs] One of the other nice things about this movie is whereas BvS I think it was hard to bring kids, like of a certain age, because it was a little scary. This is less so and I think more open to families. BATMAN SEEMS A LITTLE DARKER IN THIS MOVIE, MOREAWAREOFHISMORTALITY,GETTINGOLDER? BEN AFFLECK: Yeah, that was one of the nice things that I really liked about it. He’s in a more existential place, reflecting back on his life, looking at the choices he’s made, knowing that he hasn’t always made the ethically or the morally right choice in this quest to make the world safer or better and he’s compromised a lot along the way and he’s just at a point in his life where he’s taking stock of that. And I think that’s interesting. There’s another version of Batman that’s really cool, that’s just, ‘My parents got killed and I’m going to avenge them and I’m going to go out and get the Joker and all the rest of the criminals in Gotham City’—this is a version of that, where a guy has kind of done all that and is now looking back on it and wondering what kind of a life he’s led and what kind of a legacy he wants to leave behind. DOYOUDRAWONYOUROWNDEMONS TOPORTRAY THAT SORTOF FRAILTY? BEN AFFLECK: [laughing] The thing about me is I have no demons [laughs]. It’s so funny. They leave me alone—what can I tell you! [laughs] 7 5 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I