One of the most challenging aspects of working in a big-budget superhero movie is to look the part- and with how superheroes have been drawn ever since the dawn of time, you’re going to have to be jacked. That’s one problem that Ben Affleck effortlessly dealt with during his time as Batman in the DC Universe.
Ripped and shredded to the bone, Affleck had achieved a body that the internet nowadays would call “a Greek god’s body”. But maintaining such a physique does not simply end with getting to that shape, but also staying in it- and that had a pretty overwhelming effect on the actor.
Dawn of Justice
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Ben Affleck Was Asked To Turn Into A Young Arnold Schwarzenegger For Batman Role
To give credit where it’s due, Ben Affleck didn’t achieve the body that he had for his role as Batman in the DC Universe all on his own. Walter Norton Jr., a trainer who had worked with the likes of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, helped Affleck get the shredded body.
The two met when the Batman actor was planning to work on The Town in 2010, and the combined effort of the two in getting Affleck a toned and muscled-up body is quite visible in the movie itself. The two ended up forming a friendship and even worked together to shape Affleck’s physique in the movie Argo.
Walter Norton Jr. and Ben Affleck
But then the ultimate test came about when the 50-year-old actor got cast into the DC Universe as one of its trademark characters, Batman, starting off with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Norton and Affleck now had to face the pressure of having to live up to fan expectations of what a superhero’s body should be like- and they might have gone way beyond that.
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According to Muscle and Fitness, the Good Will Hunting star was even suggested to turn himself into a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Other than looking like someone who could battle someone like Superman, the whole routine was undertaken in order to give Batman the look of an MMA heavyweight unlike that of Michael Keaton or Christian Bale’s physique.
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Keeping Up With That Physique Would’ve Killed Ben Affleck
Matt Reeves wasn’t the man originally attached to direct the Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman, it was in fact Ben Affleck himself who was supposed to act in it as Bruce Wayne and even direct it. However, he never ended up being involved in the project in the end.
Batman
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Regardless, the Gone Girl actor revealed why he ended up moving away from the role of Bruce Wayne altogether. During an interview with The New York Times, he said-
“I showed somebody ‘The Batman’ script. They said, ‘I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again’.
Had he not taken the pressure of working on a superhero movie off of his back, it might have ended up in a very ugly way for Affleck. He has already been struggling with alcoholism, and has gone into rehab multiple times starting in 2001, then in 2017, and again in 2018.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Muscle & Fitness
