Ben Affleck is one of the most highly respected actors today. He’s still celebrated years later for his roles in movies like Chasing Amy, Good Will Hunting, and Argo, and regularly asked about his short-lived role of Batman in the DCEU. But it’s not often that he’s asked about an early acting appearance in 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer when he played Basketball Player #10.
Before Joss Whedon developed Buffy into an iconic television series, the idea was turned into a movie starring Kristy Swanson and the late Luke Perry. Since Ben Affleck plays a basketball coach now for Gavin O’Connor’s The Way Back, he was asked to recall his time in the role, and laughed at himself a bit while doing so. Speaking to SiriusXM, Affleck said,
Apparently, I'm so bad in that movie. I had one line. It was 'Take it,' I think.
Ben Affleck has a short stint in the high-school set movie in a scene where some of the basketball team turn into werewolves. The teammate-gone-furry asks for the ball from him and he says the single line while acting scared. Oh, but there’s more. He explained,
I went to the movie and I was like, 'That is not my voice. That is not me.’ Apparently [director Fran Rubel Kuzui] hated my performance so much that she looped the entire performance, which was one line. So, yes, I am dubbed in English!
Incredible. It’d have to be really bad for the director to dislike an extra’s performance so much that it's dubbed. Oops. Thankfully that was nowhere near close to the end of Ben Affleck’s career in acting. That same year he also had his first major role in School Ties with Brendan Fraser, Chris O’Donnell and his buddy Matt Damon. And then Dazed and Confused arrived the year after that.
But still, Ben Affleck certainly remembers being in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s just a funny throwback to now remind him about how much things have changed for him. Almost 30 years later, Affleck is back on the basketball court to play a high school coach who accepts a job at his alma mater while he’s struggling with alcoholism.
The Way Back is a deeply personal film for Affleck because he’d actually dealt with these problems himself. It’s publicly known that the actor has recently gone to rehab for his struggles with alcohol, but he told CinemaBlend that starring in the film was “cathartic” for him. Director Gavin O’Connor recently recalled that Affleck actually suffered a breakdown while the cameras were rolling due to the material being so close to him. Affleck's decision to face his struggles head on, is exactly why The Way Back could be inspiring to audiences.
The actor is also back on track with a slew of movies he’s getting ready to film, including Ridley Scott's The Last Duel with Adam Driver, Matt Damon and Jodie Comer. The Way Back hits theaters on March 6.
