Entertainment
Ben Affleck Calls ‘Justice League’ Reshoots the ‘Low Point of My Career’: ‘It Was So Gross’ How the Studio Replaced Zack Snyder With Joss Whedon
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Published 10/12/2026 2:49:32 PM
Ben Affleck Calls Justice League Reshoots the 'Low Point of My Career'
Ben Affleck appeared on the latest episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast and called the reshoots for “Justice League” the “low point of my career.”
Warner Bros. infamously replaced director Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon to overhaul the movie after Snyder needed to pause work due to his daughter’s death. Snyder estimated in a recent interview with Variety that Whedon’s reshoots covered 60 new pages of material. The end product resulted in a critical and commercial misfire for Warner Bros. Whedon was later accused by “Justice League” actor Gal Gadot of threatening her on set, claims of which he denied.
“The experience of ‘Justice League’ was so negative for lots of different reasons, some of which have to do with where I was at personally and some of which had to do with the tragedy that happened at that time,” Affleck said. “I saw how not to make a movie like that, which is where the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You are really making a mistake. I was really glad and gratified that Zack got to release [his version via the Snyder Cut]. That was fucking great. I was really happy for him. That was shitty, him being taken off that movie and the reshoots that we did. If you want the low point of my career, it was that.”
“Somebody’s death by suicide eclipses everything,” Affleck continued, referring to the death of Snyder’s daughter. “The way in which that was, I thought, used as an excuse [to replace Zack] was one of the shittiest things I’ve ever seen. It was so gross. The whole environment and vibe [on set during the reshoots], much of which I was not privy to but heard secondhand from the actors, it was just, ‘Wow, this is about as gross as it gets.’ And I was drinking too much… and I got divorced. It was a difficult time for me personally, but those thing, while painful, did not impact that movie.”
Affleck previously told Entertainment Weekly that making “Justice League” was “a nadir experience” that made him not want to continue playing Batman. The actor added at the time: “I didn’t like being there. I didn’t think it was interesting. And then some really shitty things, awful things happened. But, that’s when I was like, I’m not going to do that anymore.”
Elsewhere during his “Happy Sad Confused” interview, Affleck confirmed that Lucasfilm approached him about directing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Whether that means he was the studio’s first choice or if they were also talking to eventual pick J.J. Abrams at the time is not something Affleck knows.
“I talked to those folks at the time, and that was one where I just was like, again, I thought like, ‘Hey, I like ‘Star Wars’ and I’m a fan, but I’m not the person to direct this movie,’” Affleck explained about turning down “Star Wars.”
“I just think someone else who has more passion for this is going to do a better job. There’s a lot of challenges to reinventing that,” Affleck continued. “In fact, you’ve seen that played out. It hasn’t been easy for them to reinvent that franchise. Some have done really well, some — and you’ve got this whole fan base that’s got its own very strong opinions… I just thought like, ‘You know what? This would be — I don’t think I can do it as well as somebody else, and I don’t want to direct something that I don’t feel like I have a chance to be really really proud of.’”
Watch Affleck’s full interview on “Happy Sad Confused” below.
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When Luis Gerardo Méndez got a call from his agents that Ben Affleck wanted to cast him in “Animals,” he was surprised the Oscar winner even knew who he was.
“They sent me the script, and it had a very beautiful note at the end from Ben, just saying like, ‘Hey, Luis, I really want you to be in the movie. This script is not ready. I’m gonna do a rewrite specifically about your character, so I’m gonna call you around Christmas because I would love to hear your thoughts,’” Méndez tells me.
They didn’t meet in person until the first day of rehearsals.
“Ben saw me and he came to me with his massive Batman back and hugged me, and he started screaming to everyone like, ‘This guy is the best actor in Mexico. He’s incredible!’” says Méndez, who first gained fame in his native Mexico with his starring role in the 2013 comedy “The Noble Family.” “He brought me to his office and he started speaking like nonstop for an hour about me and how excited he was to work with me. At the end I was like, ‘Ben, can I ask you something? Why are you so excited to work with me?’ And he was like, ‘“Narcos: Mexico.” Your character is incredible. I was watching “Narcos,” and I called Matt [Damon, who was originally supposed to star in the film] and said, ‘Hey, dude, are you watching “Narcos?” The cop. We need to get the cop.’”
Méndez starred in the third season of the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico” in 2021 as corrupt cop Victor Tapia.
Affleck stars in “Animals” — he also directed the film and co-wrote the script — as a businessman running for Los Angeles mayor when he and his wife (Kerry Washington) receive a phone call saying that their son Denny (Christopher Woodley) has been kidnapped.
Méndez plays Ramon, the undocumented Mexican boyfriend of the couple’s housekeeper (Adriana Paz), who finds himself unexpectedly thrust into trying to resolve the kidnapping when things take a drastic turn.
As for Affleck’s script changes for Ramon, Méndez says, “It was so magical because it was like if Ben had read my mind, like all the things that I thought about the character that were missing, about the proper representation, about the proper way of speaking of the characters … everything was there.”
While the film is meant to entertain, Méndez hopes it also fosters conversations around immigration.
“What I want the audiences to think about for a second is: no one leaves their homes because they want to,” he says. “They leave it because they’re running away from violence, from political persecution. We need to understand that. The vast majority of the immigrants, not just in the U.S. but in the whole world, they just want to work and they’re very hard workers. They just want to do the right thing like our characters in the movie. They’re taking the biggest risks with the least protection. They’re doing the right stuff in a system that won’t allow them to shine or to be heroes.”
Méndez splits his time between Los Angeles and Mexico City. He also travels the globe as a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
Méndez chokes up when asked about ICE. “To hear about these families getting separated, it’s really hard for me to speak about it, especially with what happened yesterday here in New York,” he says in reference to the recent ICE shooting of 28-year-old Oscar Belgal. “I feel like no matter what your immigration status is, no one should lose their dignity. It’s as simple as that.”
He also warns about global warming’s effect on immigration. “We’re going to see massive amounts of people moving, leaving. We’re seeing it already in California,” Méndez explains. “We don’t know if tomorrow we’re going to be the ones migrating. No one has any certainty about that. We must understand that. We must be welcoming because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 20 or 30 years. It’s about empathy and also about you could be next, we could be next.”
