Ben Affleck has explained why Jennifer Garner exited his upcoming Netflix thriller Animals after he cast himself as her on-screen husband.
Affleck, 54, took over the lead role of Mark Kimball when Matt Damon, 54, became unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. The shift forced a delicate conversation with his ex-wife, who had originally been set to play the character’s love interest. Garner, 54, had been attached to the project during Damon’s tenure, when the on-screen marriage would have been purely fictional.
“I thought, God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role,” Affleck said, recalling his initial enthusiasm. “It also has the added benefit of — both of us will see our kids more because we do a week and a week and back and forth.”
He had envisioned the former couple coordinating their custody schedule around the production. The pair share three children: Violet Anne, 19, Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13, and have maintained an amicable co-parenting relationship since their 2018 divorce.
The dynamic changed fundamentally when Affleck stepped into Damon’s part. The film centers on a rocky marriage, a scenario that hit too close to home for Garner’s comfort. “I talked to Jen, and she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do that. You just get baggage,'” Affleck shared with the outlet. He added that she warned against letting “the audience’s baggage” work against the performance.
Kerry Washington ultimately replaced Garner in the role. Affleck expressed continued admiration for his former spouse, saying that he would “love” to collaborate with his “good friend” on a future project where their personal history would not overshadow the material.
The former couple’s history stretches back to 2000, when they met on the set of Pearl Harbor. They went public as a couple in 2004, married in Turks and Caicos in June 2005, and announced their separation a decade later. Their divorce, finalized in 2018, followed two years after they initially filed. Both have since remarried and divorced again — Affleck to Jennifer Lopez from 2022 to 2024, and Garner to businessman John Miller in a relationship that ended in 2024.
Animals marks Affleck’s return to directing following 2021’s The Tender Bar. The project began production in early 2024, though filming was briefly halted before the cast reshuffling. The thriller is scheduled for release on Netflix next month.
