Ben Affleck shows signs that his struggles against his demons are far from behind him. The actor/director was caught on video stumbling around in a mask at a party where he’d been drinking.
TMZ filmed Affleck outside the La Peer Hotel in West Hollywood steadying himself with the aid of an SUV. He was trying to walk and get into another car with a female companion but couldn’t maintain his coordination.
Related: Ben Affleck Reveals Matt Reeves’ Batman Will Be a “Starting-Out Version”
In the video, you can see him canoodling with his companion and trying to leave while the paparazzi asks how he’s “been tonight.” Affleck wore a skull mask because he was attending a Halloween party at the hotel hosted by Unicef.
https://youtu.be/Y7zkQ-LpK1U
TMZ caught up with the former Batman at ex-wife Jennifer Garner’s house where he called the incident a “slip.” Said Affleck, “You know, it happens. It was a slip, but I’m not going to let it derail me.”
Asked if he was headed to rehab again, Affleck replied simply with “Thank you, guys.”
Ben Affleck’s battle with addiction is well-documented. He went through stints in rehab as far back as 2001. Several followed, including one in 2017.
It was a year ago that Jennifer Garner staged an intervention to help him that received widespread media coverage. Affleck had been photographed by paparazzi before then, accepting delivery of beer and bottles of liquor at his residence. That was the last straw and Garner intervened; Affleck agreed on one more stay in rehab.
His troubles began affecting his work. Affleck was tapped to write and direct The Batman before Matt Reeves came along as a standalone adventure in the DC Extended Universe started by Man of Steel and Zack Snyder. He was slated to star as well.
Related: Ben Affleck Out as Batman, Release Date for Matt Reeves’ The Batman Announced
The pressure got to be too much and he bowed out, clearing the way for Reeves, Robert Pattinson, and a full reboot. He wished them well on Twitter and formally declared he was no longer Batman on Jimmy Kimmel.
Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life. https://t.co/GNgyJroMIO
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) January 31, 2019
In interviews, Affleck repeatedly stated the problem was he couldn’t “crack” the story, i.e., find a new angle. Here’s what he had to say to IGN when Triple Frontier dropped on Netflix:
“We worked on the script, I was trying to figure out how to crack it, and I was never happy enough with it where I thought it was worth going out and making it because I just didn’t want to do a version that I wasn’t really excited by, so I still don’t know.”
Later, it was rumored Affleck’s Batman would’ve tangled with Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke and explored Arkham a little more deeply than before, according to Affleck’s chosen Director of Photography for his scrapped film Robert Richardson.
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