I worry about Ben Affleck. He regularly tells journalists his issues, to the point where Kanye West uses him as a cautionary tale. Maybe the guy is calculating how much to share in order to score headlines, but I think there’s an earnestness to him, like he thinks that if he keeps it real people will relate to him and understand. I also think he just starts talking to someone and lets his guard down. Hence this interview with The London Sunday Times, where Ben admits that he relates to his upcoming role as Batman, because he too has anger management issues. He seems to come to this realization during the course of his discussion with the journalist, and maybe it’s part of his process of getting into the role. Affleck also compares himself to Scott Peterson in terms of how much the press turned on him in the early ‘aughts, which he’s done at least twice before. He has his talking points and in some cases he’s stuck to them for years. At least he didn’t bring up J.Lo again.

Compares himself to Scott Peterson again
Gone Girl, in part, borrows from the Scott Peterson case. And I remember, when [that case] was happening, I thought, “He and I are getting about the same degree of negative publicity – and he killed his wife!”

On why he took the part in Batman
To get the exposure to a movie of this scale is an education.

You’re always thinking about the momentum you’re trying to build in your career. There are dual thought processes – on the one hand, you’re going, “What’s interesting to me?” On the other hand, you’re thinking, “How do I give myself the opportunity to do those things?” And that calculus, I think, consciously or subconsciously, is part of any career thought process.

On the criticism of his casting as Batman
I don’t worry too much about what other people say about me versus my own ideas and standards, what I’d like to do. Particularly given that when I set out, in 2002 or so, to be a director, if I had listened to all the things people said about whether or not I’d be successful and what kind of movies I’d make, I never would have done it. It was a really good lesson in self-determination and trusting my instincts.

On Batman’s suppressed rage
I think it’s a necessity, historically, in the tradition of these films. For me, anger is so deeply buried and contained that when it does kind of come out, it comes out in stronger bursts. I tend to be respectful, polite, get along, put up with, put up with, put up with … then, when it finally emerges, it’s not something I have a ton of control over. I’m not gonna go into a Wolverine berserker rage, but I do have a, I do… That is an interesting thing that you point out. That’s my personality… By the way, that’s a character flaw, I think.

[From The Sunday Times via US Magazine]

Affleck also talks a little about his wife, Jennifer Garner, and how she helps soothe his neurotic self-criticism prior to taking on directing projects. He admits that he catastrophizes the situation until she tells him that he was just as insecure with his last movie. He said that “she’s so on the money.”

In terms of his anger issues, he doesn’t seem to be saying he flies into a rage so much as he doesn’t say anything until things get really bad, at which point he reacts more severely than he normally would. Affleck is under a lot of scrutiny. I think that if he had serious anger management issues, like his predecessor Christian Bale, we would have heard about it already. Maybe his statement was a kind of nod to Bale and an acknowledgment that outbursts happen.

photo credit: FameFlynet