Here are some photos of Ben Affleck on Monday, outside of Jimmy Kimmel’s studio set in LA. Ben appeared on Kimmel’s show to promote his new Netflix movie, The Rip, which reunited him on-screen with Matt Damon. My confession: I cannot wait to see The Rip. I have a thing for copaganda in general, but I love its cousin, Dirty Copaganda. Show me cops beefing with other cops! Cops not knowing if they can trust fellow cops! Thieving, lying, scheming cops! That’s what The Rip is about, and I think Matt Damon is the “dirty cop.” I’m including the new, just-released trailer below.
Ben and Matt started their promotion already, and a few days ago, in a joint interview, they talked about the now-infamous incident on the set of Gone Girl, where Ben “shut down production” because he refused to wear a Yankees hat in the film.
Ben Affleck stands by one of his most talked-about on-set movie moments. The actor, 53, recently sat down with his The Rip costars — Matt Damon, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Sasha Calle — to talk Boston sports. When asked who the more passionate Boston Red Sox fan is, they all rushed to answer the follow-up, “Who refused to wear a Yankees cap for a movie?”
Affleck famously led to a pause in production on the 2014 film Gone Girl when he refused to wear a New York Yankees baseball cap, refusing to even fictionally endorse his real-life favorite Boston Red Sox’s longtime rival. Director David Fincher ultimately relented and did not make Affleck wear the hat.
“Technically, I passed on a movie where —” Damon began, to which Affleck joked, “It always has to be about Matt.”
“You actually shut production down because you wouldn’t work,” Damon laughed.
“The director shut it down by insisting that I wear that. I just had to take time to explain to him why it was a bad idea,” Affleck countered.
As the story of the on-set tiff goes, Affleck was asked to wear the Yankees hat because his character, Nick, had previously lived in New York with wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). The hat was supposed to disguise him from the masses who were hearing the missing woman’s story and formulating an opinion. Ultimately, the show went on, with Affleck wearing a Mets cap in the scene instead.
In an Oct. 2014 interview with The New York Times, Affleck talked about the argument with Fincher while promoting the film, noting, “That was the only fight David and I had, and it was a legitimate fight.”
I don’t really understand this kind of fanaticism when it comes to local sports teams, but sure. I’m on Fincher’s side – it would have made perfect sense for Ben’s character to wear a Yankees cap, but whatever. I can see why Fincher ended up relenting.
Here’s the latest trailer for The Rip, plus a clip of Ben on JKL, where they’re talking about the Argo awards-season mess. The Rip looks SO GOOD.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Los Angeles, CA Ben Affleck surprised fans and photographers with an unusually cheerful attitude as he arrived at Jimmy Kimmel Live, stopping to sign autographs, joking about a pen tossed back over the fence, and laughing openly while interacting with the crowd. Pictured: Ben Affleck BACKGRID USA 5 JANUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Melanie Miller / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Hollywood, CA Ben Affleck steps out looking sharp in a navy blue suit as he arrives for his guest appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’. Pictured: Ben Affleck BACKGRID USA 5 JANUARY 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
My G-ddaughter is from Boston….I get it!🤣
I hear that because I’ll be dammed before I wear a Yankees hat. You can find a plain baseball hat for me to wear.
Yeah…no way is a person loyal to the Red Sox going to wear a Yankees cap. Just no way. I say this as a child of Boston natives who grew up in metro NY and now lives in New England. Not even as a joke gift.
If the rationale was the character lived in NYC for a time Fincher could have easily just switched it to a Mets cap without an argument or work stoppage.
I also heard the story told that the reasoning for the Yankees hat was that it was bought by the character in haste at the airport. Yankees hats tend to outnumber other NY teams but any local sports team was in play under that logic. I never understood why it wasn’t at St. Louis Cardinals hat. Very few Midwestern males travel without tossing a hat in their bags.
A switch to a Mets hat should have been the obvious move from the start, before it became an issue (who knows NY sports well enough to know Yankees items are the most readily available…but doesn’t know their bitter rivalry with Boston and that no Red Sox fan would be caught dead in Yankee gear, or vice versa?) – I’m surprised no one pushed back on this before it ever got to Ben.
The article above says the rationale was that the character had previously lived in NY with his now missing wife (although I read the book when it came out and then saw the movie when it came out, I don’t remember the details so will just assume that’s true?)
But if that is the case, and the point is he is trying to disguise himself in a crowd there to hear details about his own missing wife…wouldn’t a hat that connects him to their past be LESS of a disguise?
Why not a plain hat?
After all, a plain navy hat makes Joe in YOU totally invisible 🙂
I back Ben 100% – no fan of the opposing rivalry team should be forced to wear their gear, no even for a movie. I would rather freeze than wear Yank/Stank gear over my beloved NY Mets! lol
I could never wear a Red Sox hat so I understand his line in the sand here. It was a legitimate boundary. If a hat really had to be worn and to connect the character to NY there’s always the Mets (not that I would, but a Red Sox fan might).
I totally get it. As a Yankees fan there’s No way would I put on a Red Sox hat unless lives were at stake- and it depends on whose life 😆
Ben looks and sounds really healthy! I can’t wait to see this movie
It’s not just that he couldn’t bear a Yankees hat. I bet he knew it would be meme’d for eternity. That image would haunt him on the Internet. One example of an actor overshadowing a role.
This is not a new story, I’ve heard it quite a lot since the movie came out lol. The Mets cap was the perfect compromise for this. I don’t know why David Fincher was so adamant he wear a Yankees hat, not every New Yorker is a Yankees fan. It’s well-known Ben is a diehard Red Sox fanatic and while it can seem silly, he knew if he wore a Yankees hat it would be memed to death and he’d never hear the end of it. I don’t think Ben was the unprofessional one here, I think David Fincher was.
HOWEVER if it was a woman who had pulled this stunt… yeah it would be a totally different story.
Agree @Villerose, with a woman things would have been different. She’d be labelled difficult and unprofessional. Which is what I think Ben is. It was a job, not a favor and Affleck is not a very good actor anyway. Fincher was very generous, I would have fired or recasted on the spot.
I agree..Ben would have never heard the end of him wearing a Yankees cap for the rest of his life! David Fincher telling this story made him ( David) look like an a$$, not Ben. Stopping production over a cap?
Ben looks really good & healthy now, which is nice to see!
I can’t wait to see this too! We watched The Departed (again) over the holidays where Matt played a bad cop. That was such a great movie.