The announcement that Ben Affleck was playing Batman in ‘Batman V Superman’ sent an incredulous wave through the fandom on the internet. Despite the actor having garnered praise for his dramatic work– ‘The Town’, ‘Argo’– and having turned in nerd-centric roles in ‘Daredevil’ and almost every Kevin Smith film, and sporting a handsome chiseled look befitting a superhero, people just weren’t sold on the ‘Gigli’ star as Batman, the most successful solo superhero in film history.
And he said nothing to argue his case. When he appeared onstage at SDCC last year, alongside co-stars Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Henry Cavill (Superman), he merely waved. He did not pounce on social media pleading with people to wait until they’d seen the movie to judge. He simply kept silent, as trailers and photos trickled out giving a better look at his depiction.
But the silence is over!
With ‘Batman V Superman’ opening around the corner, Affleck is no longer keeping mum. Though he’s not begging fans to accept him, he did offer insights into his take on Batman, in particular, the effects that Robin and Wonder Woman have on the character in this movie.
Regarding Robin, whose battered costume fans glimpsed in the trailers, Affleck states:
“What I wanted was to create a Batman that was sort of at the end of his rope physically and psychologically and emotionally, a guy who was beaten down by the world, a guy who was a little bit more of a slugger, who has more gray in his hair, and who was questioning whether the whole journey that he lived as Batman was in fact even worth it, given that he was not superhero, but now had to face a super-being… He’s bitterly disappointed in the past that he’s lost this guy who fought by his side. That character’s death must have been devastating to him, and he’s suffered. We get the sense that he’s suffered a lot of devastating losses before this movie even starts.”
And while Batman clearly doesn’t trust the superhuman Superman, how does he view the equally powerful Wonder Woman?:
“It inspires in him the idea that well, if there’s one of these kinds of people out there, then maybe there are in fact more. If there are more, then maybe that’s hopeful and also terrifying to him, because then they could make humans even more powerless — or they could serve on our side. You’ve got to remember that Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and if he suspects that there may be more, and if he suspects in particular that Diana may be somebody special, he gets inspired.
She’s particularly beguiling and inspiring. Gal as an actress, I think is spectacular. It’s an incredibly hard part to pull it off, and she pulls it off with ease and grace, and it’s also just really fun to watch. I think it’s exciting to him that she’s out there and, ultimately, without giving too much away, he realizes that it’s not only exciting, but also necessary that he finds more of them if they are, in fact, out there.”
The movie is opening in just weeks. Are you ready to see Affleck’s Batman swoop across the silver screen?
‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, and Jesse Eisenberg hits theaters on March 25, 2016.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
