Ben Affleck has appeared in more than 50 films since he and Matt Damon crashed onto the scene with their 1997 smash hit Good Will Hunting, which saw the co-writing pair launched to the top of Hollywood.
In the years that followed, despite a few good roles, Affleck's career suffered after a few big-budget flops, including a critically-panned role in Michael Bay's Pearl Harbour, and an increase in attention from the tabloids resulting from his relationship with Jennifer Lopez.
This didn't stop the already Oscar-winning actor from pushing for big roles with some of the film industry's greatest directors, including Steven Spielberg, as he sought greater opportunities to stretch his considerable acting talents.
But nothing in life is guaranteed, even if you're Ben Affleck who has still not worked with the Hollywood bigwig. As it turns out, Spielberg had a very explicit reason to not hire the Armageddon actor - and fans think it is 'bulls**t'.
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Speaking on the One Bad Movie podcast, writer and director Mike Binder shared his experience of trying to cast Affleck in his 2005 film Man About Town, with both of them excited to be working together.
But the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry, especially when that plan includes legend and industry titan Spielberg.
When Binder told the Jaws director that he wanted to cast Affleck, while mentioning the actor's recent flops, Spielberg gave a deeply personal reason to not hire him, unrelated to his performance on-screen.
Binder relayed Spielberg as telling him: "One time, he was going with my goddaughter Gwyneth [Paltrow] and we all went on a trip to Spain. My son was a little boy who was playing in the pool and he got out of the pool.
"Ben came in fully dressed and my son pushed Ben into the pool. Ben got really mad at him and he came out of the pool and he picked him up and he threw him back into the pool and made my son cry."
Binder said the director added 'I just don't like to work with him', causing podcast host Stephen Baldwin to pull an incredulous face at Spielberg's reason for not working with Academy Award-winning Affleck.
It was not just Baldwin who thought this reasoning was not good enough, with one viewer asking: "Hold up... do I hate Spielberg now? Because the fuck is this bulls**t."
But when Binder told Affleck that Spielberg was blocking him from getting the role, the young actor instantly knew why.
"Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that why I am not on the movie?" Binder relayed Affleck saying.
Binder went back to Spielberg and told him that Affleck was the man for the role. Then, the whole movie got dropped by Dreamworks.
But despite Spielberg's apparent dislike for Affleck, just three years later the pair were seen hugging at the Academy Awards, after Affleck's Oscar win for Argo (2012), beating out Spielberg for Best Picture.
Seeing the pair reconcile, Binder could not help but crack a joke to Affleck: "I text him... Ben tonight you could throw Spielberg's whole family in the pool and get away with it."
Topics: Ben Affleck, Steven Spielberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hollywood
William Morgan