If Ben Affleck ever tires of directing movies, he definitely has a future in crafting campaign ads. Just not for himself.
“On a personal level, I think it would be an awful job,” Affleck tells USA TODAY about holding political office. He’s become “so disillusioned with the system and with politics and politicians, and the way it works."
In his new kidnapping thriller “Animals" (streaming on Netflix Oct. 9), Affleck directs, co-writes and stars as Mark Kimball, an independent Los Angeles mayoral candidate struggling with poll numbers and trying to lock down the Hispanic vote leading up to election day. As if he isn’t stressed enough, his little boy is taken by a mystery man who calls Kimball and wants him to pay $7 million for the child's return.
The opening scene, however, shows Mark – who's financing his political bid himself – on a charm offensive on camera and in the community, talking with constituents and discussing how the city needs to change for the better. If Affleck actually were to run for office, it probably wouldn’t look that different.
Tell Affleck his "campaign ad" is pretty good, and he appreciates the compliment. “I'd be flattered, except I think there's such a low bar in politics these days,” Affleck quips.
One of the main reasons why he directed “Animals” is because he was wrestling with the “performative nature of morality in the world," especially in politics.
“Even with social media or our sort of curated worlds that we show people, we're increasingly asked to project certain symbols that tell others what our values are," Affleck says. He's seen cases where public personas were "really discordant" from their personal values.
“Now, this may just be a function of the fact that we are taught to sort of to have these values, and to want to tell ourselves narratives about ‘I’m a good person,’ etc. And often, we're not confronted with the difficult tension that can arise when something that feels incredibly urgent or important is in contrast with what those values dictate our behavior should be.”
Affleck, 54, also wanted to explore how moral compromise happens.
“The extremely effective nature of when a person individually has something to lose is when they're most apt to to make compromises,” he says. “Are we just kind of self-seeking animals who, in retrospect, build stories to rationalize where we are and what we've done? And there's another part of us, our sort of higher selves, which says, well, I'm going to adhere this moral code even if there's a cost to me.”
Off screen, Affleck has been involved in politics over the years. The Oscar winner campaigned for Al Gore and Barack Obama when they were running for president, and in 2004 hit the road to support John Kerry’s campaign. Now he sees so much "hypocrisy, corruption and failure that I’ve become quite aversive to the idea.”
So while he’s had mixed feelings himself about running for public office, Affleck is pretty certain about his position.
“The way it's constructed now is so geared around money, sound bites, cruelties and gotchas, and little snarky things that really have nothing to do with people's lives whatsoever," the filmmaker says. "And increasingly, it's easier to get votes appealing to the worst in people than it is appealing to the best in them. If you're telling a story about kind of morality and compromise, there are lots of pressures that are constantly asking you to sacrifice your principles.
“Frankly, at this point, it's a sort of self-selecting job, and we end up getting people with whom the electorate is perennially dissatisfied,” Affleck adds. “If you get past the party affiliation notions, or the tribal notions, and you just ask people broadly, ‘Hey, what do you think about the political world, and how do you think it's working?’ It's a resounding rejection from people, no matter who they may have voted for.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ben Affleck says he'd never run for political office – 'An awful job'
