Ben Affleck Talks His Initial Hesitance to Take On Batman

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two months, you might have heard Ben Affleck was cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Warner Bros. tentatively titled, Batman vs. Superman, the follow-up to this year's Man of Steel.

To say the public outcry over his casting was outrageous is a bit of an understatement.

From online petitions, to death threats, to even going as far to ask President Obama to have WB reverse his casting, Ben Affleck received a lot of unnecessary crap over his acceptance of the role.

In a recent interview though, Affleck discussed his initial hesitance to take on such an iconic role and follow in the footsteps of what both Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan created:

Initially I was reluctant as I felt I didn't fit the traditional mold but once Zack showed me the concept, and that it would be both different from the great movies that Chris and Christian made but still in keeping with tradition I was excited. Doing something different and new is always tricky and part of the thrill and the risk is that initially it confounds expectations. The truth is, it's the movie and the execution of it is what all the actors depend on and I believe in Zack's vision.

You have to give the guy credit, he knows what he is doing, because the truth of the matter is, Ben Affleck doesn't NEED to play Batman.  Coming off his Oscar winning Best Picture Argo, his career has never been hotter and has the ability to do pretty much whatever he wants.  He's currently filming the lead role in David Fincher's Gone Girl along with a number of high-profile directorial/acting projects over at WB including Live By Night and just this week's announced Congo/Africa thriller.

Affleck's taking on the Batman role because not only does he feel he can tap into the character and do something unlike what we've seen, but also because - and he states this above - he believes in the vision Zack Snyder has presented to him.  But even more so than this, he's smart enough to realize it's all about the execution.  How many times do you seen a great idea for a film turn out to be a terrible movie?  It's because the filmmakers didn't execute properly.  No one wants to make a bad movie, and if it were so easy to make a good one, every one would do it.

I for one can't wait to see how this all turns out but we can expect some major news in the next few months as the Batman/Superman flick is set to starting principal photography in February.

Source:  411mania