They're both Hollywood heavyweights, but Ben Affleck And Steven Spielberg have never acted in a movie together – and it turns out there may be a reason for this.
Appearing on a recent episode of the show One bad movie podcast along with Stephen Baldwin, writer-director Mike Binder recalled how he and Steven Spielberg originally worked on the script for his 2006 film: Man about the city. The film, about a Hollywood agent whose life begins to unravel, was originally planned to be produced at DreamWorks under the direction of Stephen; however, Mike ended up taking the film to Lionsgate and directing it himself after Stephen apparently expressed serious concerns about the casting of Ben Affleck in the lead role.
“We make a deal, he'll do it. We shake hands,” Mike said of Ben's casting. “I call Stephen, Stephen says: “No. You can't do this to him. We just bombed with the movie with him; He’s got this whole thing going on with J.Lo now, and I have other problems with him.”
These “other problems” were apparently related to temporary relationship With Gwyneth Paltrow between 1997 and 2000, around the time Ben rose to fame with Good Will Hunting. Gwyneth, if you didn't know, is Stephen's goddaughter and they are very close.
Recalling the awkward conversation, Mike claimed Stephen told him about the time his family holidayed with Ben and Gwyneth in Spain and Ben apparently upset one of his young sons. “My son was a little boy and he was playing in the pool. And he came out of the pool and Ben came in fully clothed and my son pushed Ben into the pool,” Stephen allegedly said. “Ben got really angry with him and came out of the pool and grabbed him and threw him back into the pool, making my son cry.”
Mike said he was a little confused by the anecdote and asked Steven, “What does that have to do with anything?” To which the iconic director apparently responded: “I just don't like working with him, and his last two films were flops. Find someone else. Someone other than him. He's cold as hell.” Mike said he then told Ben's agent that they needed to find someone else for the role, which prompted a call from the man himself. “Ben called me and asked, 'Did Steven Spielberg tell you that I threw his baby in the water?' Is this what happened? That’s why I’m not in your film?”
As the story goes, Mike then went back to Steven and told him that he was adamant that Ben be in the role, and the next day he received a call that DreamWorks was pulling out of the project. Mike did Man about the city with another studio starring Ben, but when it came out in 2006, it received poor reviews and ended up being another flop on the actor's then-poor resume.
Later in the interview, Mike stated that Steven and Ben buried the hatchet back in 2013 when Ben's film came out. Argo won best film at the 2013 Oscars, clearly beating out Stephen Lincoln. Whatever the case, there are photos of Stephen and Ben shaking hands that night, and more than a decade later, it appears the two directors are still getting along great. In a fairly recent interview with GQ magazineBen called Stephen “one of the greatest architects of filmmaking that ever lived.” We love a happy ending.
