Ben Affleck Names George Clooney As The Best Director He’s Ever Worked With

Throughout a career that’s spanned almost 30 years, Ben Affleck has worked with some of the biggest, best and most successful directors in the business, and he’s no slouch behind the camera himself either, having made a successful transition into becoming an acclaimed filmmaker.

His back catalog includes collaborations with Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Gus Van Sant, Michael Bay, John Woo, David Fincher, Zack Snyder, Ridley Scott and more, but the two-time Academy Award-winning writer and producer has named George Clooney as top of the pile.

The two A-listers wrapped shooting earlier this year on literary adaptation The Tender Bar, which is coming to theaters nationwide on December 22, before hitting Prime Video on January 7, 2022. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Affleck was full of praise for his fellow big-screen Batman and the way he puts his films together.

“He’s just so good and so smart and creates a great environment. We had great experience working together previously, he produced Argo [with me]. He just has so much experience doing his thing, doing this job, and it’s like, such a gift. Because it cuts through all the noise and gets right to the x, y, z. Bing, bang, boom. He is the best, most precise directors I’ve ever worked with.”

Clooney has proven to be somewhat inconsistent during his career as a director, but the hits just about outweigh the misses. The Tender Bar looks to be a smaller, more intimate character piece, a far cry from his post-apocalyptic Netflix sci-fi The Midnight Sky, and it sounds as though we can expect a stellar performance from Affleck given how much he enjoyed his time on set.