One of the sidebar conversations on social media that came out of that Joss Whedon profile this week was about Batman. As Sarah noted in her post about Joss, for years there has been in-fighting among fanboys about Justice League and Zack Snyder’s version vs Joss’s version and people debating whether or not Joss f-cked with/ruined Zack’s vision and it doesn’t seem like there’s ever a day that goes by where the nerds aren’t on Twitter yelling about it but over the last few days, because of what Joss said about his experience on Justice League and working on the story, I’ve been seeing it more in my feed, with the pro-Snyder people really getting jacked up in their devotion to Ben Affleck as Batman. I quite liked him as Batman, and I don’t think, overall, Ben’s performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman hurts him at all. Certainly not the way George Clooney’s Batman is, by George’s own admission, one of the low points of his resumé.
And in terms of the impact on Ben right now, well, that’s not a problem either. I’ve been saying for weeks that Ben is a possibility for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and while he’s certainly not one of the frontrunners, his chances definitely got better last week when the Screen Actors Guild included him on their list for his performance in The Tender Bar, which is excellent.
Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get that Oscar call, but it’s an indication of how he’s perceived among his peers. It’s one thing, the public perception of Ben Affleck, but whatever his public image is, it’s not entirely matched within the industry. He’s been working a long time, he has worked with a LOT of people, some pretty influential people in the business. And that SAG nomination shows that there’s a lot of goodwill for Ben in those circles. The Oscar Academy’s actors’ voting branch is much smaller than SAG membership, but within that more narrow lane of actors, and more successful ones – on the measurement of general recognition and opportunity of work – I can’t imagine that he’s any less embraced in those circles. Maybe not enough this year to warrant an Oscar nomination but enough to be at least in the conversation. And enough to be able to say that another Affleck comeback is basically complete. Also enough to say that getting back together with Jennifer Lopez did not result in negative professional consequences.
Attached – Ben out with his son this weekend.
