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It’s no secret that Ben Affleck’s time as Batman was a bit of a mixed bag. From the, shall we say, not-so-great initial reaction to his casting as the Caped Crusader to the pretty negative reviews for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” it all got off to a rocky start. Then, when director Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” turned into a commercial disaster, things went from bad to worse, with Affleck departing the role before he ever got a solo film. That’s to say, there’s a lot for Affleck to dislike about the experience.
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In an interview with GQ, however, the actor, director, and producer revealed that his least favorite part of the experience has nothing to do with the reception (nor the frustrating missed opportunity that came with him ending his run as Batman). No, it was much more practical than all of it. Affleck, as it turns out, hated wearing his batsuits. As he put it:
“I hated the batsuits. The batsuits are horrendous to wear. They’re incredibly hot, for one thing. They don’t breathe. They’re made to look the way they want ’em to look, and there’s no thought put into the human being.”
Affleck further explained that you “just start sweating” the moment you put on the costume. Playing a superhero can already be a physically demanding job. An extra sweaty, uncomfortable suit doesn’t make things any easier. Continuing, Affleck remarked on the extreme amount of sweating he did while filming:
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“Now I’m already … I sweat, you know what I mean? I get hot. And so in that thing, you would just be pouring water because it’s got the cowl over it. Like, there’s one thing to wear the suit, but once you cover your head, I guess that’s where all your heat kind of escapes and you feel it.”
The Batman suits didn’t make Ben Affleck feel very heroic
For what it’s worth, Affleck has been complimentary of his time working with Snyder as a director in the past. It was when Joss Whedon had to come in to reshoot much of “Justice League” when things really took a turn for him. So, it’s not as though he’s talking s*** about the entirety of his experience playing Batman. It’s just that the practical nature of wearing a superhero suit for hours on end made a difficult situation even more difficult. To quote Affleck directly:
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“Even the most highly-trained, much more fit stunt guys, the parkour guys, the action guys, they could do that for about like 45, 50 minutes and then they’re like gonna get heat stroke. You had to come out of it. And that was really the thing was that it just made it difficult to make the movie because it was so hot.”
Affleck has previously addressed what went wrong with his run as Batman, with him leaving the role before he could make his planned version of “The Batman.” Recall that Affleck was originally going to direct that movie in addition to starring in it. Given the complications of being in the suit, though, one imagines that would have been especially difficult. Speaking further, Affleck noted that the nature of the sweaty suit made it difficult for him to feel heroic even while he was starring in a superhero movie:
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“It also does not make you feel very heroic because you’re instantly exhausted and really sweaty and kinda trying to hide like, the sweat pouring down your face. Like, ‘No, we can go again, I’m fine, I’m good.’ And then there’ll be like — eye black is like, running.”
Looking ahead, we’ve got Robert Pattinson returning as Bruce Wayne in “The Batman Part II.” Aside from that, DC Studios bosses Peter Safran and James Gunn also plan to introduce a new Batman for the DC Universe. As for who will fill those bat-shoes? That remains to be seen, but whoever it is, they need to be prepared to sweat it out, apparently.
You can grab Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” trilogy on 4K via Amazon.
