Ben Affleck wanted his ex-wife Jennifer Garner to play his onscreen wife. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor revealed that during early development on his upcoming film Animals, he originally planned to direct Matt Damon in the lead role, and wanted Garner to star opposite him as the wife. “I thought, God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role,” Affleck said. The Ben Affleck Jennifer Garner Animals casting idea never came to fruition, though not for lack of interest on his part.
Eventually, Damon had to exit the film, and Affleck stepped into the lead role himself. But before that transition, he floated the idea to Garner directly. “I talked to Jen,” he recalled, “and she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do that. You just get baggage.'” The role ultimately went to Kerry Washington, who stars alongside Affleck in the Netflix crime thriller.
Despite the decision, Affleck made clear he still hopes to work with Garner again someday. “She’s fabulous, and we’re really good friends, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have a great thing,” he said. “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”. Affleck and Garner were married from 2005 to 2018 and share three children.
