EXCLUSIVE: Ben Affleck revealed to ScreenRant how he reworked his brand-new crime thriller, Animals, when the story was too similar to a Denzel Washington project.

Affleck directed and co-wrote the film, and also stars in Animals with Kerry Washington. They play married couple Mark and Abigail Kimball, whose son gets kidnapped. Mark is running for mayor of Los Angeles and faced with a countdown to pay the ransom. They resort to shady means to get the job done, as dirty politics explodes to the surface.

The movie’s plot could have turned out much different, though. In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan, Affleck described what happened that led to an overhaul of the script. It turns out the original screenplay was very similar to a film that was being made with Spike Lee and Washington.

“They’re two guys who I really admire,” the actor and director explained, “and I was not interested in competing with [them] or being compared.”

Washington and Lee have collaborated multiple times over the years on movies like Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game and Inside Man. In 2025, Lee released Highest 2 Lowest with Washington, which seems to be the film Affleck is referring to, as the plot has some similarities.

Instead of forging ahead as-is or letting the whole project fall apart, Affleck and the team, which includes producer Matt Damon, started to think of a different story.

Affleck pondered questions like, “What happens…when they can no longer be their performative selves? What’s the real nature of a marriage? What is marriage built on? What if you had a marriage that wasn’t working and that got to the point where people felt they had nothing to lose, so [they can] just be their absolute true selves?“

Affleck and co-writers Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray came to the realization that the kidnapping would be the type of catalyst to explore those ideas. That’s what got him really interested in the project and what could be possible with the storyline and the cast.

Washington was the first actor to join the cast, followed by Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Adriana Paz. Ray Fisher and Christopher Woodley also appear in Animals.

As everything started coming together, he thought, “This is actually much more exciting.” Even though the kidnapping in Animals is “the answer to what happens in the movie,” that’s not actually “what this movie’s really about.”

ScreenRant: The script fell apart at one point. Can you walk me through what the original idea was and how it evolved from there?

Ben Affleck: “The script actually didn’t fall apart so much as what happened was that the original script that we bought, that I was interested in making and wanted to make and set up…I discovered — as happens sometimes, and it’s happened to me in the past — they were making another movie similar to it with Spike and Denzel. They’re two guys who I really admire, and I was not interested in competing with [them] or being compared.

“So, I thought, ‘Okay, forget it. Let’s just not do that.’ That was in concert with Matt and our company. And it was frankly just a thing where sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes…I was in one of two asteroid movies in my career. We happened to be the first one, and I think that was better for us. I didn’t want to be the second asteroid movie.

“And then, rather than falling apart, after that incarnation of the movie just went away (or we chose not to do it), this story was still on my mind. The things that were on my mind that were interesting about it really had very little to do with the plot architecture at all. Not having purposely read that script or the book on which that was based, I just nonetheless thought the things I was interested in were about what happens to people when they can no longer be their performative selves? What’s the real nature of a marriage? What is marriage built on? What if you had a marriage that wasn’t working and that got to the point where people felt they had nothing to lose, so [they can] just be their absolute true selves? Maybe that’s an interesting starting place for a marriage.

“It was an exploration of those things. And once I got interested in that, I realized that a kidnapping is still a catalyst to it, but really, this is a movie that should be judged on its own merits. I think [it will] live or die on those. And once I got really interested in that, frankly, I got much more interested in the movie and the possibilities for who to put in it and cast. Kerry was the first person, then Gillian and Steven and Luis and Adriana. I thought, ‘This is actually much more exciting.’ The kidnapping is what happens, or the kidnapping is the answer to what happens in the movie, but that doesn’t actually turn out to be what this movie’s really about.”

While he is best known as an actor, Affleck has also directed several films, including Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo, Live By Night and Air. Argo proved to be a massive hit, grossing $232 million at the box office and earning a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

During awards season, the political thriller won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing at the Oscars.

He’s gone on to many other movies since then, but the last time he directed and starred in a project simultaneously was 2023’s Air, which was up for two Golden Globes.

Now Affleck is back with multiple roles in front of and behind the camera in the new crime thriller Animals, which is now streaming on Netflix.

Release Date

October 9, 2026

Runtime

106 minutes