14 DAY TRIAL // This weekend, on the Warner Bros. panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2015, Ben Affleck made his first public appearance since he announced his divorce from wife of 10 years Jennifer Garner. He was still wearing his wedding ring and he might have even included a joke about his troubled personal life in his speech about Batman from “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
He also recalled a chance meeting with Christian Bale, when he more or less gave him his blessing to play the Caped Crusader. Check out the video embedded below.
Christian Bale was ok with Batfleck
After Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in the 2016 film, fans reacted with negativity. The moniker “Batfleck” was created to show studio bosses that they did not think Affleck would be a convincing Batman and that, most likely, he would ruin a legendary comic book character just like he’d ruined Daredevil in the critically panned movie of the same name.
Naturally, Christian Bale, who had played Batman in Christopher Nolan’s insanely successful “Dark Knight” trilogy, was asked what he thought of Affleck taking over. At first, Bale wasn’t happy, admitting that he was “jealous” they’d given the role to someone else even though he would have never reprised it.
Bale would have returned as Batman only if Nolan also came back to the franchise. Without Nolan, he chose to pass on the role by saying he was too old for it.
According to Affleck, Bale finally came around to the idea, even giving him his blessing. It came under the guise of a word of advice, to make sure that he got a suit that allowed him to go to the bathroom when Mother Nature called, Affleck told audiences at Comic-Con, to roaring laughter.
Batman is now “a burn out”
Apparently, when director Zack Snyder approached Affleck with the idea for the part, Affleck thought he couldn’t do it.
“If I thought too hard about the actors who played the part before, I couldn’t take the job,” he said. “George Clooney did great, Christian Bale… I talked to Zack and I was like are you sure, you know? And he said I have this vision, I have this idea for the guy and you’re perfect for it. What do you mean? [He's at] the end of his rope, he’s a burn out [laughs] … The truth was that he took me through the process of creating this character that I quite almost didn’t see and at the end of it I was astonished.”
Indeed, in “Dawn of Justice,” Bruce Wayne is older and no longer fighting crime as Batman.
The thing that manages to bring him out of retirement, as the trailer released on the panel and also embedded below shows, is seeing one of the Wayne buildings destroyed by Superman as he’s battling General Zod at the end of “Man of Steel,” which came out in 2013.
He decides Superman needs to be brought to justice and acts accordingly, even as Alfred warns him that Superman is not the enemy.
“Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” will be out in theaters in March 2016.
