Ben Affleck on filming Justice League: It was the worst experience and awful

Ben Affleck seemed to want to bury his Justice League memories in a cave. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 49-year-old Oscar winner was asked about difficult periods in his recent past during an interview with a news site that was published on Friday. One of the topics he highlighted was his 2017 declaration that he would no longer direct The Batman, the Matt Reeves-directed film that will now mark Robert Pattinson's debut as the title superhero.

Following his explanation, Affleck stated that he has come to the idea that he should focus on professional decisions that make him happy rather than attempt to please others. He further said that a good example is directing Batman, during which he felt he was not going to be happy doing this and that whoever does this should enjoy it.

He continued that one is meant to want these things all the time, and he would have loved to do it when he was 32 or whatever. But it was at that point that he realised it wasn't worth it. He called it a lovely benefit of reorienting and recalibrating one's objectives, that he felt more at ease once it became more about the experience.

Affleck went on to say that his return to Batman in 2017's Justice League was "the nadir" of his career. The actor-filmmaker mentioned director Zack Snyder's departure from the project after the death of his daughter Autumn in May 2017 as one of the reasons for the difficult filming. In the end, Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon, whom Affleck did not mention by name in the interview.

For Affleck, Justice League was the lowest point in the series because of a convergence of events that were dreadful experiences for him, including his life, his divorce, being away too much, opposing agendas, and then Snyder's sorrow and the reshooting. It was simply the worst event of his life, recalled Affleck, and he called it a disaster. He added that it was everything about it that he didn't like. 

The actor added that it was the point at which he declared that he was not doing this anymore. It was not even about how horrible the Justice League was; as Affleck said, anything could have happened.

He left the role of the Caped Crusader in 2019 but will return in November for The Flash.