Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington have been all over my feed for at least a week now as they promote their new movie, Animals, arriving on Netflix on October 9. Kerry plays Abigail to Ben’s Mark Kimball, who is running for mayor when their son is kidnapped. It’s a thriller but, it sounds like, a meditation on marriage, how a relationship is tested during crisis.

I haven’t seen it yet but I am interested in what their chemistry will be because their real-life chemistry works quite well. At times Ben seems like he’s constantly trying to impress her, or teasing her, and she’s tolerating his motormouth ass and also quite admiring of his skill as a scene partner and a director. Here’s an example.

And here he is on Good Morning America talking about why he finds her so fascinating.

Of course the internet will do what the internet does and there are some people who are like… he has a crush on her. Well, she’s Kerry Washington, don’t we all have a crush on her? So there’s been some light joking that, you know, there might be a thing between them. But that would interfere with the “thing” she has with Tony Goldwyn. I’m not sure if there are still Scandal truthers out there who are clinging to the fantasy that Olivia Pope and Fitz are actually secret lovers IRL but there’s been some of that in the background of Ben and Kerry. Amazingly, at least on my timeline, it hasn’t turned ugly, at least not yet, in that f-cked up parasocial way that unfortunately has become so common.

It is true, though, that when Ben is in Kerry’s presence, he’s about as appealing as he can be. He looks like he’s having a good time, that she’s the good time and that he can’t help but … do TikToks with her, LOL.

She took him from that style of TikTok… to this.

And, sure, it’s their job to be as charming and engaging as possible because they want the movie to be a success, especially since it’s Artists Equity and it’s quite likely that there’s a bonus structure built in for everyone – which only adds incentive to everyone involved to be as marketable as they can. At the same time, Ben Affleck by Kerry Washington is the most entertaining and likeable version of him that we’ve seen in a minute. 

Photos attached – Kerry in a Mark Kimball tee yesterday at Jimmy Kimmel.

Kerry Washington at Jimmy Kimmel Live! in LA, October 6, 2026

Photo credits: PGP/Backgrid

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