Ben Affleck’s portraying an alcoholic basketball coach in The Way Back (release date March 6), which isn’t exactly the type of role that one would expect an actor to pick up following his Batman run. Still, the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter can have his pick of parts, so clearly, he felt that this character’s story was important enough to be told. Affleck’s one of those rare actors whose presence can instantly greenlight a film, but it wasn’t always this way. In fact, one of his earliest on-screen appearances did not go well, to the point where Affleck has revealed (on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show) that he only had one line in the movie, and the director dubbed his voice out.
Do you recall Affleck’s performance in 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Probably not, and that’s alright. Affleck only had one line in the script, and his voice never actually materialized in the final product. Yep, he portrayed Basketball Player #10 and now shares his humiliation at being “so bad” that the director couldn’t stand his voice:
“Apparently, I am so bad in that movie that my one line — it was ‘take it,’ I think — I thought it was fine and the director seemed happy. I went to the movie [theater] (I didn’t get premiere tickets or anything) and I was like… that is not my voice! That is not me! Apparently the director hated my performance so much that she looped the entire performance, which was one line. Yes, I was dubbed. In English!”
“Take it”? Here’s the face to match that vibe.
Things are much better for Affleck now! Listen to him reflect upon his humiliation below.
