Simply Abu Dhabi XXXI

7 7 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I BATMAN MEETS AQUAMAN [PLAYED BY JASON MOMOA] IN THIS MOVIE. NOW AQUAMAN AS A CHARACTER HAS BEEN THE TARGET OF SOME JOKES FOR SOME TIME—HOW IS THIS FILM GOINGTOCHANGE THAT? BEN AFFLECK: Jason has done an amazing job with the character and taken it from like… I thinkWonderWoman was also a tough character to get cool. When you think about the Tv or the cartoon Wonder Woman it’s like a woman in a bikini with an invisible jet and Aquaman is sort of this blond guy with an orange shirt who talked to fish. These performers and this director took them, I think.. Captain America is the same way, he’s kind of a goofy guy, you can think of him as overly earnest but they made him cool. Those accomplishments are fromgood performers and directors who kind of guide the tone. I had a lot of admiration and respect for these guys and what they were able do. THE COSTUME YOU WEAR LOOKS PRETTY HEAVY—HOWWAS THAT? BEN AFFLECK: You really do lose like 15 pounds of water every day and to take it off is disgusting. Peel it off. HOWMANY SUITSDIDYOUHAVE? BEN AFFLECK: Oh there’s bunch of them, stunt guy suits and they made multiples and then there’s a suit in this, I don’t know if you noticed, but for the last battle it’s armoured a little bit more. So that’s different. I don’t even know. They have some that are more pristine not for fighting scenes but sort of like close-up, sexy, see the suit, you know, dialogue scenes. And then they have some that are a little bit more stretchy and banged up that are for stunts so that you can move around in them. HOW DO YOU FIND WORKING WITH GREEN SCREEN? BEN AFFLECK: That skill, the ability to use your imagination and to really try to immerse yourself into an imaginary environment has become one that’s become more and more necessary for film actors, as more and more green screen and CGI stuff is being used to tell stories and audiences are becoming more accustomed to it and their standards are getting higher and they’re expecting better and better. This movie had by far the most CG of any movie I’ve ever worked on and BvS had the second most. That’s the direction that this genre of movie is progressing in and I think that’s a big part of the appeal. It’s why superhero movies didn’t really start to work that well until the effects caught up with it. Until it really looked like the human torch could catch fire or Iron Man could shoot blasters out of his hands and fly and once the effects caught up with that kind of storytelling it got I think really exciting for fans. THERE ARE SO MANY SUPERHERO MOVIES OUT EVERY YEAR – WHAT SETS ‘JUSTICE LEAGUE’ APART FROMTHOSE? BEN AFFLECK: I do think there is a lot of expectation around this movie. You know, you’re playing in a pool with a lot of other big contenders and other big movies and it puts you kind of amongst the bigger players. There are a lot of people making really good movies. I think what’s special about this, to me, is the group, how well we get along, it’s about the people and how they relate to one another. I may be old-fashioned but I’m a firm believer in character and story really driving a movie. visual effects alone are not enough. WHATABOUT THEGADGETS? BEN AFFLECK: All that stuff is important and fans really do come to expect it but what defines on a kind of binary level, a movie that works from one that doesn’t, is one where you care about the characters, care about the people. I think downey [Robert downey Jr.] really did wonders for Iron Man. He created this character and people really latched onto him and he really shouldered the first four or so movies. That’s not easy to do. That comes down to human performance. ARE YOUAGADGETGEEK? BEN AFFLECK: I like gadgets. I stole a lot of them! [laughs]