Ben Affleck says he relates to his latest film character’s difficult love life, especially when it comes to reading signals.
The Oscar winner, 52, discussed his role as Christian Wolff in The Accountant 2 in a recent press junket and noted that Christian’s relationship struggles are something he understands.
“Here’s a guy who’s trying to figure out — he wants to have a relationship with a woman, he’s trying to figure out how to do that, like, how to put yourself out there,” Affleck said of his character. “You know, he’s not comfortable extending himself. He doesn’t really know how to flirt exactly. He’s not comfortable … like so many of us.”
The Argo director went on to add, “It’s not easy for anyone figuring out relationships, particularly at the very early part, where you’re trying to gauge, ‘What does this signal mean? Is this person looking at me? Do they like me? Am I going to humiliate myself if I go over there?’”
Affleck’s discussion of the vagaries of dating comes three months after he finalized his divorce from Jennifer Lopez. The Air actor and the pop star, 55, tied the knot in July 2022 after reconnecting the year prior. The former couple originally dated in the early 2000s after meeting on the set of Gigli and got engaged for the first time in November 2002. They were set to tie the knot in September 2003 but called off the wedding days before the ceremony and split months later.
Lopez filed for a dissolution of marriage in August 2024 after months of speculation about her and Affleck’s relationship status and listed their date of separation as April 26, 2024. The following month, Luxury Handbag Shopping confirmed Affleck had moved out of their shared Los Angeles home. (Affleck was also previously married to Jennifer Garner from 2005 to 2018. The exes coparent their three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.)
Affleck first portrayed Christian Wolff, an autistic math savant who works as a freelance accountant for dangerous criminal organizations, in the 2016 action-thriller before reprising the role for the sequel, which hits theaters on Friday, April 25. While Affleck noted that Christian will be dipping his toe into the dating pool this time around, the second movie is largely focused on a different type of relationship, as Christian teams up with his estranged — but highly lethal — brother Brax (Jon Bernthal) in hopes of tracking down mysterious assassins.
Audiences will be surprised at how much comedy is actually woven into the dynamic between the two siblings — something even Bernthal wasn’t expecting.
“It was a real thrill for me to get back, and I think with Ben, it just kind of happened that way. I mean, [the comedy is] there, but it was very much supported by [director] Gavin [O’Connor] to sort of let moments linger and let it exist naturally and play the moments in between the beats,” Bernthal explained during the press conference. “He’s unbelievably funny and, it sounds corny, he’s just mastered this character in such a way that you can. … There’s just so many little moments of truth that are going on that you love but can also drive you crazy from the right point of view, and I feel like I was really let off the leash to have a real opinion about that.”
O’Connor, for his part, says the match up works because Affleck and Bernthal “weren’t trying to be funny” — it simply was “ingrained into their characters And they had very specific wants, and if you’re not getting that, it’s like banging your head against the wall.”
Of course, the film will still be packed full of action and violence, just like the first. But for Affleck, it’s more about viewers connecting with the story — and the characters — they’re watching on screen.
“[Gavin’s work] is always driven from, like, what does each character want, why are they doing this,” Affleck explained. “There’s a grounded reason for it, and then his gift is to take that and make that visually compelling.”
O’Connor echoed Affleck’s sentiments. “We knew what the stakes were, we knew what they wanted, so inside of the action and the choreography, really it was about the emotional line between the two brothers and how are they going to try to accomplish this together, and that was really what the conversations were about,” he said. “The action is like dance … So it was really evoking emotion because you care about the characters.”
The Accountant 2 hits theaters on Friday, April 25.
