He tells Entertainment Weekly the casting nearly happened for Animals, before Garner herself vetoed the reunion and Kerry Washington stepped in.
Ben Affleck came close to putting his ex-wife back on his own set. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, cited by Deadline and TheWrap, the director says Jennifer Garner was his first pick to play Abigail Kimball, the wife of a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, in his upcoming thriller Animals. It just never quite worked out that way.
The film went through more shuffling than most productions admit to. Garner was cast early, opposite Matt Damon, who was set to play the lead, Mark Kimball, a father whose son gets kidnapped and who has a few hours to scrape together ransom money. Affleck was directing, not acting.
Then Spike Lee's own kidnap thriller for A24, Highest 2 Lowest, entered the picture. Affleck says he shelved Animals two weeks before shooting was due to start rather than compete with a similar premise. "It's hard enough to make a good movie," he told EW. "You don't need those kinds of headwinds."
Damon out, Affleck in
Months later, Affleck's interest came back. But by then Damon had committed to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, so the lead role needed a new occupant. Affleck, only half joking, told EW that Damon "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." He then stepped into the part himself.
That's when the Garner question resurfaced. With Affleck now playing Mark, casting Garner as Abigail would have meant an onscreen reunion for two people whose divorce played out very publicly. Affleck says he liked the practical upside too, pointing out their custody schedule would let them both see their kids more often while shooting.
Garner wasn't convinced. "I talked to Jen, and she was like, 'We don't wanna do that. You just get baggage,'" Affleck recalled. He says he'd still like to work with her at some point, calling her "fabulous" and someone he's "profoundly grateful to." But he agreed the film didn't need viewers bringing their own history into the theatre with them.
The role eventually went to Kerry Washington, whom Affleck says he bonded with during the 2023 industry strikes. "She's very polished, but she's also very warm," he told EW. "I thought, oh my God, she's amazing for this."
Animals also features Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Adriana Paz. Affleck co-wrote the script with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray. The film gets a limited theatrical run before landing on Netflix on October 9.
Whether Affleck and Garner ever do share a screen again is now an open question rather than a settled one. For now, audiences get Washington and Affleck instead, and a backstory more tangled than most trailers let on.
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