Ben Affleck Nearly Cast Ex Jennifer Garner As His Wife In ‘Animals’: “You Just Get Baggage”

As Ben Affleck takes the lead in his next directorial outing, he’s recounting the casting game of musical chairs that almost resulted in his onscreen reunion with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

The co-writer, director and star of Animals, premiering Oct. 9 on Netflix, explained how he came to take over the lead role of Mark Kimball from his pal Matt Damon, after initially casting Garner to play Mark’s wife Abigail in the crime thriller.

“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.”

Affleck added, “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.”

But being that a similar kidnapping thriller was coming out with A24’s Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest, Affleck pulled the plug on that version of Animals two weeks before production was set to begin. “It’s hard enough to make a good movie. You don’t need those kinds of headwinds,” he explained.

A few months later, Affleck’s passion for the project reignited the production, but Damon was busy working with Christopher Nolan.

“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,” joked Affleck. “A better actor had to play the part, naturally.”

Deciding to take on the role of Mark himself presented another issue. “I talked to Jen, and she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do that. You just get baggage,'” he recalled.

“I would love to work with her, frankly,” added Affleck of his ex-wife. “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?”

Ultimately, Affleck ended up casting Kerry Washington after getting to know each other during the 2023 Hollywood strikes. “She’s very polished, but she’s also very warm. I thought, Oh my God, she’s amazing for this,” he said.

Co-written by Affleck, Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, Animals stars Affleck as Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, whose son is kidnapped, giving him and wife Abigail (Washington) a few hours to get their hands dirty and come up with the ransom money.