Filmmaker Mike Binder allegedly revealed the reason veteran director Steven Spielberg refuses to work with Gone Girl actor Ben Affleck. Binder revealed the details of the alleged feud during his recent appearance on Stephen Baldwin’s podcast One Bad Movie.
Steven Spielberg is not interested in working with Ben Affleck
During his latest appearance on Stephen Baldwin’s One Bad Movie, Mike Binder revealed the details of a feud between Steven Spielberg and Ben Affleck, which stemmed from something completely unrelated to the movies.
Binder revealed that he wrote and directed the 2006 film Man About Town, but initially wanted to let Spielberg direct it. The project did move forward with production starting at Spielberg’s studio, DreamWorks. Steven Spielberg soon backed out from the movie as a director, but wanted to keep the movie at DreamWorks with Binder as the director.
Binder then met Ben Affleck, and decided that he would be a good fit for the role. “I call Steven, Steven says, ‘No. Can’t do it with him. We just bombed with a movie with him, he’s got that whole J-Lo thing going on now, and I have other problems with him,'” Binder recalled about the interaction with Spielberg.
Binder claimed that Spielberg told him that Ben Affleck had picked a fight with Spielberg’s young son during a vacation in the 1990s and made him cry. “My son was a little boy, he was playing in the pool, and he got out of the pool, and Ben came in fully dressed, and my son pushed Ben into the pool,” Binder recalled about what Spielberg told him, “And Ben got really mad at him, and he came out of the pool and picked him up and threw him back into the pool, and made my son cry.'”
Binder added about this, “He says, ‘I just don’t like to work with him. Plus, his last two movies bombed. Find somebody else. Anyone but him. He’s cold as hell.’ I said, ‘Okay, Steven.”
Binder told Affleck the bad news, and Affleck seemingly knew where it stemmed from. “Ben calls me up, he says, ‘Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that what happened? Is that why I’m not on your movie?” Binder recalled.
Binder ultimately made it clear to Spielberg that Affleck was his preferred star. The following day, Dreamworks dropped the project. Binder revealed that the grudge between them was seemingly settled during Affleck’s 2013 Oscar win.
