By Variety | Created at 2026-10-02 06:49:20 | Updated at 2026-10-02 07:38:33
2 hours ago
Ben Affleck plays a Brentwood businessman running for Los Angeles mayor in the new thriller “Animals.”
The Oscar winner, who directed and co-wrote the film, is also a longtime political activist who has supported the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Now, his “Animals” cast would like him to run for elected office.
Ben Affleck says there’s a “collective disappointment” with American politics and dismisses the idea that he’d ever run for office: “There’s nobody alive who thinks we’re doing it right.” pic.twitter.com/KMrIjelx0q
— Variety (@Variety) October 2, 2026“Maybe they hate me,” Affleck cracked at the “Animals” premiere on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
Kerry Washington co-stars as Affleck’s wife in the movie. “We keep telling him that he should, but he doesn’t want to,” she told me. “You know, we’re in a place in our politics right now where anything is possible, but I would hope that the people who are running for office want to be there and he has been very explicit in saying that he doesn’t want to run for office.”
Luis Gerardo Méndez plays an undocumented Mexican immigrant in the film who finds himself unexpectedly — and dangerously — thrust into the mayoral hopeful’s life. “I would definitely vote for him,” Méndez said. “Go Ben Affleck! He’s smart and sexy — that’s all you need.”
Affleck, however, isn’t announcing a candidacy anytime soon.
“We don’t ask the question of what are your qualifications to hold public office any longer,” the Oscar winner said. “It’s, ‘You wanna join the circus? Who’s the biggest carny?’ I think that there is a whatever side of the aisle you’re on, one of the interesting things that people can agree on is a collective disappointment with the way that American politics has trended.”
Affleck continued, “There’s nobody alive now who thinks, hey, we’re really doing it right and things are going great and I love this political system. And that’s a problem.”
Being in office, Affleck says, is no longer about serving the people.
“It’s just about money, raising money, it’s just about playing a sort of adolescent game of who can make fun of the other person better or be more reductive and stupid about something rather than actually trying to talk about the issues,” he said. “I think the thing that’s missing from politics, frankly, is you have to lead. You can’t just scare people. You can’t just hector them. You can’t lecture them. You can’t guilt them into it. You’ve got to inspire them. Otherwise they don’t want to vote for you.”
And then he added, “Selfishly, I just see what a difficult grind of a job it is and I’d rather make movies about it.”
Animals will be released on Netflix and in select theaters on Oct. 9.
