Although Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has a dedicated fanbase, when the movie was released to the masses at the end of March 2016, it was met with many negative reviews. Among the fallout from this was Sad Affleck, where a YouTuber laid Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" over an interview where Ben Affleck looked depressed as Henry Cavill talked about Batman v Superman's poor reception. Almost 10 full months after that video hit the internet, Ben Affleck has learned a valuable lesson: have plenty to say whenever he's in an interview alongside Cavill.
Batman v Superman came up during Ben Affleck's recent interview with BBC Radio 1, and the interviewer asked the actor if working on the superhero movie taught him anything as an actor and director. This was his response:
It taught me not to do interviews with Henry Cavill where I don't say anything and they could lay Simon and Garfunkel tracks over it, that's one thing I learned.
The general idea behind the Sad Affleck video is because Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's less-than-stellar reception hit him harder than most, hence why he looked so glum and only responded with "I agree" after Henry Cavill gave his response in that interview. "Sound of Silence" just happened to be the most fitting track to lay over the footage. A few months later, it was reported that Affleck felt "humiliated" after spending so much time during the press tour saying that Batman v Superman would be better than his previous superhero outing, 2003's Daredevil. Okay, now it's more legitimately sad than funny.
Although Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice didn't do as well as Ben Affleck and Warner Bros hoped, it did take in over $870 million worldwide, making it the seventh highest grossing movie of 2016. So there's one silver lining. Another one is that Affleck knows to be on guard whenever he's in an interview with Henry Cavill so he isn't targeted by another Simon and Garfunkel song.
After indirectly addressing Sad Affleck, Ben Affleck stated that he did indeed learn a lot from his time on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, as he'd never worked on a movie of that scale before and wasn't familiar with what the new technology being used in blockbusters was capable of doing. You can watch the full segment below.
Despite any sadness Ben Affleck may have felt about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's underperformance, it hasn't deterred him from his work in the DC Extended Universe. He'll reprise Batman for Justice League on November 17, and he's currently working on the new Batman movie's script. Just stop asking about how that work is going, okay? Give the man some space.
