Jennifer Garner Helped Ex Ben Affleck Keep Role In ’The Way Back’ After Relapse

Jennifer Garner helped Ben Affleck keep his role in his latest film.

Garner and Affleck parted ways in 2015, but they decided to continue with their amicable arrangement as they co-parent their three children: Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11, and Samuel, eight. The “Miracles from Heaven” star also remains supportive of her ex-husband especially when he was still battling with alcohol addiction.

According to director Gavin O’Connor, Affleck almost lost his role in “The Way Back.” However, his ex-wife requested that they give Affleck a chance.

“Just as we started prepping the movie, Ben fell off the wagon,” O’Connor told 34th Street magazine. “So he ended up going to rehab, and I didn't know if the movie was over. The studio certainly thought the movie was over. His ex–wife Jennifer Garner called me up, and told me that when he went to rehab, he took a basketball with him. She said, ‘Gavin, he’s asking you, please don't pull the plug on the movie, he really wants to do this.’”

Gavin continued on how Affleck had about a week of detoxing as he also wanted to go off the deep end. After a week, the director visited Affleck and they spent half a day together and discussed how they could work on it together as the “Batman v Superman” star still needed to recover and get his sobriety on track after his relapse.

“That overtook everything. And then he got out the day before we started shooting. So we had a very raw, vulnerable guy showing up for our first day of shooting,” Gavin added.

In another interview, O’Connor admitted that he didn’t thought Affleck’s issues were very intense until they started filming. He recalled how Affleck broke down in one scene which blew them away.

“It was probably the second take, Ben just had a breakdown. I’m getting chills thinking about it. It was like the dam broke and everything came out,” the director said.

According to the screenwriter and producer, the crew and everyone on set were frozen as they watched Garner’s ex bear his soul. They felt how real it was for him.

Affleck revealed in an interview with The New York Times that he never thought his marriage with Garner would end in divorce. The celebrity dad confessed that he never saw himself being a divorcee and considered the end of his marriage the biggest regret of his life.