Ben Affleck says he pretended to campaign for LA mayor for new film 'Animals'
Ben Affleck isn't running for Los Angeles mayor, but he is playing a fictional candidate for the job in his new thriller, "Animals."
The actor stopped by "Good Morning America" on Wednesday to talk about the new film, which follows an L.A. mayoral candidate who, along with his wife, finds himself drawn into a web of deception, according to a synopsis for the film.
Affleck, who also co-wrote and directed the movie, said that while filming, he took to the streets of L.A. and told people that he was running for mayor as his character in the film, Mark Kimball.
He said he was surprised by how many believed him and began sharing issues that matter to them.
"I said if I'm not careful, I'm gonna win!" he said. "Do not vote for me!"
He said that the movie is about "marriage and how honest we are with each other, it's about the masks that we wear in public and then it's what happens when something in your life is so scary or traumatic that the masks come off."
Kerry Washington plays Affleck's wife in the film.
Affleck, who said he is a "superfan" of Washington's hit show, "Scandal," said that he's known her for a while and recalled what he called her her authenticity during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which Affleck noted was perfect for "Animals."
He said that what the film is about at its core is about the marriage between Washington and Affleck's characters.
"How real can you be with somebody in a marriage? How vulnerable can you be and how hard is it to show your partner the things about yourself that you don't think are attractive," he said. "Kerry was what fascinated me because no matter how well I knew her, I was like, I know there's something going on with you."
Elsewhere in the interview, Affleck talked about artificial intelligence. The actor, who sold his AI startup InterPositive to Netflix for nearly $600 million earlier this year, has previously spoken about how he used AI in "Animals."
Speaking to "GMA" he said that AI was used in ways to "augment and make what we're doing better in a more convincing illusion."
Affleck said that AI was used to support the filmmaking process and make tools and processes better, adding that he isn’t interested in seeing AI replace filmmaking altogether.
"I'm really glad that Netflix has been enormously supportive of is like really not seeking to replace people," he said. "Not just out of some sense of virtue but because it's not wise, nor is it necessary, nor is it the kind of society anybody wants."
He continued, "This is really an effort to say, like, this can be done this way. We can use this technology, we can embrace it, we can find efficiencies. That doesn't mean that first thing you're looking for is how many people can we lay off, or can we get the human out of the loop or can we give this -- abdicate our judgment or decision-making to a technology that is inherently probabilistic and unnecessary, which I think would be a terrible mistake. And I understand that there is a lot of anxiety around this technology and what it means for people and I understand why."
He added, "Most of the voices that you hear talking about it are talking about it in ways that are either I think kind of irresponsible or a little uninformed or focus specifically on those people's agendas, and are not talking about it in terms of like, hey what's a model that we can live with and work with that can actually make everyone's lives better."
"Animals" arrives on Netflix and select theaters on Friday.
