Ben Affleck’s time as Daredevil isn’t remembered particularly fondly. Mark Steven Johnson’s film is generally considered to be near the bottom of the barrel of the superhero genre, and though I’ve got a soft spot for Colin Farrell’s take on Bullseye, I have to agree with everyone. Even Stan Lee didn’t think much of the movie, commenting that: “They just wrote the whole thing wrong. They made him too tragic.”
Affleck himself has never shied away from criticizing the film, either, claiming its negative reception was part of the reason he chose to don the cape and cowl in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, saying to Time Magazine: “Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right—to do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much.” So, not exactly mincing his words then.
Now, a new clip has been released in which Affleck is once again down on the movie. It comes from the documentary Cinemability and was clearly filmed a long time ago. The pic, from director Jenni Gold, is being released to mark National Disability Awareness Month, taking a look at “the evolution of “disability” in entertainment over the last 120 years by going behind the scenes to interview celebrities, filmmakers and studio executives.”
Ben Affleck, having played the blind Matt Murdock, discusses how the challenge of portraying a sightless superhero was the most interesting part of the project. Apparently, he worked with blind performer Tom Sullivan in order to try and realistically convey the character’s disability.
“One of the things that I really cared about in that movie was not just looking blind or coming across blind but knowing what it felt like. [Tom] was really patient with me and really helped me understand something I thought was really interesting artistically. I think that was the most interesting thing about the movie, frankly…which was kinda silly.”
While Ben Affleck’s Man Without Fear is confined to just one film, you can still catch further adventures featuring the hero in Daredevil season 3, which lands on Netflix on October 19th.
