Ben Affleck says Matt Damon was 'principal influence' in helping him quit Batman

Ben Affleck recently spoke about his experience of playing Batman for over five years in the DC Extended Universe, and how Matt Damon's influence was key in helping him quit the role.

Affleck was being interviewed by Damon, with whom he has worked in Good Will Hunting and most recently The Last Duel, for Entertainment Weekly. 

"I had a really nadir experience around Justice League for a lot of different reasons. Not blaming anybody, there’s a lot of things that happened. But really what it was is that I wasn’t happy. I didn’t like being there. I didn’t think it was interesting. and then some really shitty things, awful things happened. But that’s when I was like, I’m not going to do this anymore," Affleck told Damon. 

He called Damon "a principal influence" in making the decision to quit the role of Batman. He added that with The Last Duel, he was doing a film where he was not the star. 

"I wasn’t all the things I thought I was supposed to be when I started out and yet it was a wonderful experience. And it was all just stuff that came along that I wasn’t chasing," said Affleck.

Justice League was a film that was not received well upon released owing to Zack Snyder's absence from the project. Joss Whedon was brought in to finish it, however, there were later reports of the actor misbehaving with actors like Ray Fisher. 

Affleck's most recent release is the coming-of-drama The Tender Bar directed by George Clooney from a script by William Monahan. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.