Ben Affleck says his kids absolutely hated him in ‘Armageddon’

Ben Affleck has revealed that his children are among his toughest critics, and weren’t a fan of Armageddon in particular.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! today (April 24) to discuss his new movie, The Accountant 2, he admitted he was surprised when Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and 13-year-old Samuel told him they enjoyed the movie.

“My kids, they’re like very tough and they don’t censor their criticism,” he explained to Kimmel. “They’ll sit right next to me watching a movie and just, while it’s happening, ‘This is terrible. I mean, this is terrible! Why did you do this?’ Like, you can wait till it ended, you know what I mean, before.”

The trio, who Affleck shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, left their most scathing criticism for Armageddon, with the actor recalling: “During COVID, all the kids were around the house, and I was like, ‘Hey, let’s watch a movie.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, maybe the kids will like Armageddon.’ Almost immediately, it was like, ‘What is this? This is so stupid. Are you kidding me?’”

He added: “My son was like, ‘This doesn’t make sense.’ I said, ‘This is not a logic-based film. That is not one of the criteria we used making this.”

As for The Accountant 2, Affleck revealed: “They liked it! At first, it was one of those things where they looked at me like you thought I was looking at you, which was like, ‘What’s the catch?

“I was like, ‘What, you really liked it?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, it was good.’ And they were shocked. You know what I mean? As if I got lucky. This magical accident happened, and something I did was okay.”

The Accountant 2 comes out tomorrow and is the sequel to 2016’s The Accountant. Affleck reprises his role as accountant Christian Wolff, while Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and J.K. Simmons also return. Daniella Pineda has joined the cast as Anaïs, an assassin.

Last month, Affleck looked back on his time playing Batman and explained that he wouldn’t work in the superhero genre again. “There are a number of reasons why that was a really excruciating experience,” he told GQ. “And they don’t all have to do with the simple dynamic of, say, being in a superhero movie or whatever. I am not interested in going down that particular genre again, not because of that bad experience, but just: I’ve lost interest in what was of interest about it to me.”

He added: “I certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience like that. A lot of it was misalignment of agendas, understandings, expectations. And also, by the way, I wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either. I had my own failings, significant failings, in that process and at that time.”

A sequel to Dogma, the 1998 comedy-drama starring Affleck alongside Matt Damon, could be in the works, however. Director Kevin Smith said in November that he was working on a follow-up, explaining: “Some people will be like, ‘Don’t fucking touch it. You’ll ruin it.’ And I’m here to tell you: I will. I’m fucking tickled. I found a way in.”

He also teased involvement from Affleck and Damon in some way, adding: “Expect a cameo from them – more than a fucking cameo. The only way we get a Dogma sequel made is if they’re there. So count on those guys being there.”

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