Ben Affleck the gamer: Former Batman star shares his favorite VALORANT agents

Ben Affleck is a man of varied tastes. He’s made Oscar-winning dramas, he’s played two different superheroes, and he recently earned rave reviews for Air, a film about the creation of the Air Jordan. A lesser-known aspect of Affleck, however, is his affinity for video games.

Affleck and his son Samuel attended the VALORANT Champions Tournament on Sunday, and the former decided to shed some light on where his fandom lies. “I’m a Kay/o main right now,” he told reporters. “And Raze too, I think… I’m a little promiscuous with who I main, you know what I mean? I move around a little bit.”

Affleck and his son also met with the actress who voices the character of Jett, Shannon Williams, and discussed the implementation of Jett nerfs, which will bring down the duelist’s output. “He could be a Jett main,” Affleck’s son mentioned, to which the actor replied: “Yeah but then they nerfed Jett.” The comment was co-opted by Williams, who said, “I know!” Williams posted the interaction on Twitter, which you can watch below.

This is not the first time that Affleck has crossed paths with video games. Kevin Smith, a connoisseur of all things pop culture and a filmmaker who’s worked with Affleck eight times, actually gave the actor a game based on his own life in 2004. “When Jersey Girl wrapped, we gave [Jennifer Lopez] and Ben this video game kiosk, tall as a person, just like in an arcade,” Smith revealed during a Zoom interview.

“The game was called Jen Saves Ben,” he added. “The Powerhouse Animation guys had created this whole animation about her fighting ninjas and sh*t like that and trying to rescue Affleck. So I’ve known the Powerhouse kids two decades.” Lopez and Affleck broke up shortly after the release of Jersey Girl, but they reunited in 2021 and married a year later.

Video games also played a role in Affleck’s tenure as Batman. When he signed on to write, direct and star in a Batman film for DC, Affleck decided to pull influence from the popular Arkham series. According to CBR, the film would have had a fight between Batman and Deathstroke that was directly modeled after fight scenes in Arkham Origins. This makes sense, given the comparisons made between Batman’s combat style in the game and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Unfortunately, the film was scrapped and the character was rebooted with The Batman (2022).

While there were some outlets claiming that Warner Bros. was considering making a video game based around Affleck’s version of the character, the actor made it clear that he’s done with the DC Universe for the time being. “I have nothing against James Gunn,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that.”

Affleck will next appear in The Instigators, a heist drama directed by Doug Liman and co-starring his longtime friend Matt Damon. A release date has not yet been announced.