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Ben Affleck considered casing his ex-wife as his wife in 'Animals'
Ben Affleck’s latest movie Animals sees the Oscar-winning filmmaker star as a husband whose son is kidnapped. His wife was almost played by Jennifer Garner, his real-life ex-wife.
According to Ben Affleck, he seriously considered casting his ex-wife Garner as his on-screen wife, Abigail, in Animals — a crime thriller in which he plays LA mayoral candidate Mark Kimball whose son gets kidnapped.
Ben Affleck seriously considered casting his ex-wife Jennifer Garner to play his character’s wife in his new movie Animals
The original version of the movie had Matt Damon in the lead role of Mark Kimball, with Jennifer Garner cast as his wife, Abigail.
“I thought, God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It also has the added benefit of, like, both of us will see our kids more because we do a week and a week and back and forth. I thought, well, we can coordinate our schedules around it.”
“She can bring something interesting that she hasn’t [done], that I kind of know she can do, that I don’t think she had a chance to do in one movie.”
Affleck axed that original version of the film due to its similarities with A24’s Highest 2 Lowest, leading to Damon having scheduling conflicts with The Odyssey. Damon dropped out, and Affleck took over the lead role.
“Matt was unfortunately doing another lesser film, obviously, with Odyssey. He chose a smaller director and a smaller film and a smaller role for his career, and I think he’s gonna suffer for it. He’ll regret this choice. A better actor had to play the part, naturally,” Affleck joked.
“I talked to Jen, and she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do that. You just get baggage,’” he recalled of Garner’s thoughts on them co-starring in the film together.
“I would love to work with her, frankly. She’s fabulous, and we’re really good friends, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have a great thing. I still would wanna work with her in the future, but what you don’t wanna do is take the audience’s baggage and have it work against you, you know?”
Instead of Garner, Kerry Washington has since taken on the part. In addition to Affleck and Washington, Animals also stars Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Ray Fisher, Christopher Woodley, Matt Gerald, Jacob Estrada, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Steven Yeun.
You can check out the official logline and trailer for Animals, which hits Netflix on October 9, below.