{"id":362879,"date":"2025-12-23T01:47:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/362879\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T01:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T01:47:04","slug":"why-havent-ben-affleck-and-steven-spielberg-worked-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/362879\/","title":{"rendered":"Why haven’t Ben Affleck and Steven Spielberg worked together?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people in Hollywood harbour grudges against one another, but few are as oddly specific as the tension between Ben Affleck<\/a> and Steven Spielberg<\/a> \u2014 a feud that apparently traces back to a swimming pool incident more than 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

Mike Binder and Steven Spielberg Were Working Together Until Ben Affleck Got Involved<\/p>\n

While appearing on Stephen Baldwin\u2019s podcast One Bad Movie<\/a>, filmmaker Mike Binder recalled crossing paths with Spielberg after the legendary director was impressed by The Upside of Anger<\/a>. \u201cHe said, \u2018We gotta do something together. I want you to write something for me,\u2019\u201d Binder explained. That collaboration ultimately gave rise to Man About Town<\/a>, a comedy-drama about a powerful Hollywood agent whose seemingly perfect life begins to unravel.<\/p>\n

Binder hoped Spielberg would direct the film. Although Spielberg later backed out of directing duties, he kept the project at DreamWorks, at least until Ben Affleck entered the picture.<\/p>\n

After meeting with Affleck, Binder struck a deal for the actor to star in Man About Town. But when he called Spielberg with the news, the response was swift. \u201cI call Steven, Steven says, \u2018No. Can\u2019t do it with him. We just bombed with a movie with him, he\u2019s got that whole J-Lo thing going on now, and I have other problems with him,\u2019\u201d Binder said.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 What Happened?<\/p>\n

According to Binder, Spielberg traced his issues with Affleck back to a family vacation in the late \u201990s, when Affleck was dating Gwyneth Paltrow, Spielberg\u2019s goddaughter. \u201c\u2018My 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,\u2019\u201d Binder recalled Spielberg telling him. \u201c\u2018And 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.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Binder continued, \u201cHe says, \u2018I just don\u2019t like to work with him. Plus his last two movies bombed. Find somebody else. Anyone but him. He\u2019s cold as hell.\u2019 I said, \u2018Okay, Steven.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Binder contacted Affleck\u2019s agent, he quickly received a call from Affleck himself. \u201cBen calls me up, he says, \u2018Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that what happened? Is that why I\u2019m not on your movie?\u2019\u201d Binder recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018No, he didn\u2019t say\u2014\u2019 \u2018Yes he did! He told you I threw his kid in the water. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not on the movie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite everything, Binder ultimately decided he still wanted Affleck for the role. Spielberg didn\u2019t push back, but DreamWorks dropped Man About Town the very next day. Binder took the project elsewhere, and the film was eventually released direct-to-DVD in 2006.<\/p>\n

Binder Made Affleck Laugh About it Years Later<\/p>\n

Years later, Binder found himself watching the 85th Academy Awards, where Affleck\u2019s Argo beat Spielberg\u2019s Lincoln for Best Picture. \u201cHe beats Spielberg, and he\u2019s at the Academy Awards, and they\u2019re hugging,\u201d Binder said. \u201cAnd I text him, I\u2019m watching on the air, I go, \u2018Ben, tonight you could throw Spielberg\u2019s whole family in the pool and get away with it.\u2019 About an hour later, the phone rings, it\u2019s Affleck at the Academy [Awards]. He goes, \u2018That made me laugh so f\u2014in\u2019 hard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Binder summed up the entire saga with some hard-earned perspective. \u201cI love both these guys, and they\u2019re both smarter than me, but they both kinda acted like idiots, and so did I,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were great guys, but at the same time, assholes. They were like everybody else. Steven Spielberg is a genius and a great guy, but he can be an asshole. And Ben Affleck is a great guy, and he can be a bigger asshole. But by the same token, both of \u2019em can go, \u2018Yeah, I can be an asshole.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Is this decade\u2019s old pool incident still a point of contention between Spielberg and Affleck? I\u2019m not sure, but the story certainly made me laugh.<\/p>\n

\"JoBlo<\/p>\n

\n Subscribe to our weekly newsletter\n <\/p>\n

\n Get the latest movie and TV news, first looks, reviews, and interviews, straight from the JoBlo crew to your inbox. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Source:
\n One Bad Movie Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many people in Hollywood harbour grudges against one another, but few are as oddly specific as the tension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4267,49,48,361,75,155923,155924,10780],"class_list":{"0":"post-362879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ben-affleck","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-man-about-town","14":"tag-mike-binder","15":"tag-steven-spielberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}