Ben Affleck reveals what happened to the kid who robbed him at 14

Ben Affleck has opened up about a chilling encounter from his youth in Massachusetts, revealing that a teenager who once held him at knifepoint went on to commit murder just a few years later.

The Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker reflected on his upbringing while appearing on the Street You Grew Up On podcast, hosted by his Animals co-star Kerry Washington.

Recalling his teenage years growing up on Cottage Street in Cambridge, Affleck, 54, described the working-class neighborhood as an environment where "poor people sort of like, feeling like they were fighting it out" was an everyday reality.

The Good Will Hunting star detailed a harrowing moment that unfolded when he was walking home from high school at around 14 years old.

Affleck narrowly avoided disaster when the boy who robbed him at knifepoint went on to become a murderer (Street You Grew Up On Podcast)

"I remember I was walking home from high school, I was 14 maybe, and I saw these two kids in like literal hoods on the other side of the street," Affleck recounted. "And, you know, it's kind of one of those things where you're like, 'All right.' It’s that thing where you're like, 'Okay, I'm either gonna run—' but of course, the worst thing you could do is run."

Choosing to keep his composure rather than show fear, Affleck stood his ground as the two teenagers crossed the street to intercept him.

"Immediately, they pass me, grab me, take a knife out: 'Gimme your money,'" Affleck recalled. "And I was like, 'Oh!' I was scared."

The life-threatening situation took a sudden turn when Affleck managed to catch a glimpse of his muggers' faces and realized they were familiar acquaintances from the neighborhood.

"Out of the corner of my eye, I realized who they were," he explained. "I recognized them from playing baseball and they were like older boys that I knew, and they were like, 'Oh yeah, what's up?' And so I guess I was like, I guess I'm off the hook."

While the brief familiarity spared Affleck from physical harm that day, he revealed that his mugger's violent trajectory only escalated from there.

"And actually, that kid who robbed me ended up, I don't know, three or four years later, killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years," Affleck revealed. "So there was that, you know what I mean? And you were kind of aware of it."

Affleck admitted that he concealed the terrifying encounter from his mother at the time, wanting to protect her from worry—a dynamic he says now haunts him as a father raising his own three teenagers, Violet, Fin, and Samuel, whom he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.