Ben Affleck nearly cast ex Jennifer Garner as his wife in Animals — Kerry Washington got the role after a one-line veto
File this one under "movies that almost broke the internet before a single frame screened." Ben Affleck's kidnapping thriller Animals hits Netflix October 9, and it very nearly arrived with his actual ex-wife playing his fictional wife.
Reader, they thought about it. Out loud. In meetings.
The Bennifer 1.5 that wasn't
The math checks out on paper, as Affleck recently explained: "I thought, 'God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role.'" There was even a co-parenting logistics angle — matching schedules, shared school runs, a divorced-parents efficiency hack of truly cinematic proportions. He remains a fan, for the record: "She's fabulous, and we're really good friends."
And then the whole thing died in one line.
"We don't want to do that. You just get baggage."
That's it. That's the veto. Ten words, and suddenly Kerry Washington is playing Mrs. Kimball, which — no disrespect to the Garner timeline — is probably the correct outcome for everyone involved, including us, the audience, who would have spent the entire runtime doing forensic face-reading instead of following the plot.
What Animals actually is
Because there is, in fact, a movie under all this goss:
- Affleck directs and stars as Mark Kimball, an L.A. mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped mid-campaign
- The ransom clock is a matter of hours, and the campaign has already eaten the family's money — hence some light illegality
- Kerry Washington plays his wife; Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun round out the cast
- Matt Damon was originally set to star, then got swallowed by The Odyssey's schedule, so Affleck stepped in front of the camera himself
- Netflix, October 9, plus select theaters
A thriller where the director replaced his best friend and almost cast his ex-wife: honestly, the press tour might outperform the film. October 9. Bring popcorn for both.
Previously we wrote: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening: what's inside the $1 billion building — Star Wars props, Frida Kahlo and 30,000 comics
