Ben Affleck Finally Responds To All The Batman Casting Backlash

It's been almost five years since Ben Affleck last donned the cape and cowl to portray the DCEU's not-so-friendly neighborhood Batman. And even as he's once-again prepping to play the Caped Crusader in DC's upcoming "The Flash," the jury is still out over his brooding portrayal of Zack Snyder's "kill first and ask no questions" version of Batman. That's been true, of course, since before fans saw even a single frame of Affleck in action as his "Batman v Superman" casting was met with more than a little trepidation from the fandom.

In fact, after Affleck's casting was announced, nearly 100,000 Bat-fans infamously took to the internet to sign a petition demanding Warner Bros. and DC remove him from the role (per Change.org), and that was just one of several. Some of that backlash likely had to do with Affleck's prior superhero effort. He starred in 2003's problematic (but better than you remember) "Daredevil," which underwhelmed many fans (via Rotten Tomatoes) of the beloved Marvel hero. Whatever the case, the vitriolic reaction to Affleck's casting was a bit much, and it seems Affleck himself took the backlash quite personally.   

After years of relative silence on the matter, Affleck finally opened up about the Batman casting backlash during a recent interview on The Howard Stern Show, holding nothing back in stating, "I was hurt." Affleck added that he was less upset by the reaction than he might've been early in his career, but it indeed still gave him pause. "I was less hurt than I would've been 10 years earlier," he explained. "But I was hurt because I felt like 'Wait a minute, come on. What do I got to do' you know what I mean? It's Like, I'm just you know, like ... I thought it was an interesting idea but you know what?"

As for the infamous petition, Affleck was as surprised as anyone that so many people took the time to sign it, stating, "I also realized at that point ... it's gonna be, 'Now this turns into a petition.' Now they got this thing, everybody's going to do a petition. You're really – a hundred thousand [signatures], you signed a f*****g petition like, you have anything better to do with your day than sign petitions?" 

Negativity aside, the actor's reasons for sticking with his Batman role were suitably noble, with Affleck claiming, "But, ironically, the reason I did this is I wanted to do a movie for my kids, particularly my son, that they would see and be proud of."