Ben Affleck Shrugs Off Criticism Over Batman Role

It took the Internet approximately one minute to throw a collective hissy fit over Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman in the upcoming “Man of Steel 2,” but the actor said that he isn’t listening to the criticism.

In a Monday night appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” Affleck sat down to discuss Zack Snyder, Batman and the Internet uproar over his casting as the caped crusader. Affleck said that, despite all the online backlash, he’s still quite excited to portray America’s favorite mentally unstable masked vigilante.

When Affleck was first offered the Batman role, he said, producers sat him down and explained that every time an unexpected actor has been cast in a Batman movie, a certain subset of hard-core fans have reacted negatively, no matter how the final film ended up. The producers told Affleck that, for the safety of his own ego, it might be best to avoid the Internet until fans get a better idea of how he'll portray Batman. Still, Affleck figured he was man enough to handle anything the Internet could throw at him.

“They said, ‘Just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days.’ What do you mean? I handle s--t, you know what I mean? I’m very tough,’ Affleck said. “So I saw the announcement, I look at the first comment and it’s like, ‘Ben Affleck is going to be Batman’ and the first one just goes, ‘Noooooooo!’”

Affleck then paused a beat before adding, “Kids, we’re gonna be Luddites for a while.”

For now, it appears that Affleck will be taking those producers’ advice.

Many hardcore superhero fans still haven’t gotten over Affleck’s last superhero role in 2003’s universally panned “Daredevil.” Fans criticized his acting as wooden and campy, at odds with the overwhelmingly dark Daredevil comics. Many of that film’s faults lie with people other than Affleck, however, and he insists that “Man of Steel 2” director Zack Snyder is talented enough to overcome the bad taste “Daredevil” left in the mouths of fans.

“Zack Snyder is directing, and he has this incredible take on it,” Affleck explained. “Obviously we can’t do what Chris [Nolan] and Christian [Bale] did, those are amazing, so he wants to do something different, but still in keeping with that, so I had to like, I thought this is a brilliant way to do this and I really know how to hook into this.”

Watch Ben Affleck’s whole interview with Jimmy Fallon below (Batman talk begins around the 1:47 mark).