Ben Affleck makes his debut as Batman
After starring in the 2006 critical bomb Daredevil, Ben Affleck declared, "I've inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero!" But here he is back in a costume as the Dark Knight for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zack Snyder and actor Henry Cavill's followup to 2013's Man of Steel.
So what drew Affleck back to the genre? "I thought the script and the themes it evokes were special," he says of Batman v Superman. "I liked the character. And I wanted to be in one of these movies that works!"
He also liked the fact that this was a world-weary Batman. "This is about a guy like a heavyweight fighter in the 12th round, who is sagging and is covered with sweat and is covered with blood and who has been through the wringer and is wondering what it was all worth," Affleck says. "He is not super, he is like us. His anger is so deeply buried and contained that when it does kind of come out it comes out in stronger bursts."
Cavill agrees that this Batman is wounded. "There's some real pain buried in there, in the soul of this Batman, yet it's covered with scar tissue," he says. "But there's also a lot of psychology in Superman. When it comes to playing the character, especially in this movie, we still see the growth of Superman before seeing the finished product of what we know and love from the character in the comic books. It was just delving into the psychology and weaknesses and playing with the conflict he has when facing the likes of Batman."
He found this layered view of the All-American superhero much more interesting to play. "Certainly in some previous live-action adaptations of Superman he's been - I don't know if 'simplified' is the right word but something around there," Cavill says. "But there is a complexity to Superman that is very prevalent in the comic books. It's just a matter of bringing it out, which is tricky to do."
Both Affleck and Cavill also enjoyed opening up the movie to another iconic character from DC Comics, Wonder Woman as played by Gal Gadot. "What I love is that we get to finally expand upon this incredibly rich DC universe," Cavill says. "I think it would be a waste just to have one hero and focus on him when there's so much opportunity to tell really good stories using everyone."
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