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Ben Affleck used AI “for lots of things” in his upcoming Netflix thriller Animals, he said Wednesday at Bloomberg‘s 2026 Screentime event. Not that he’s going to tell you which things.
“I used [AI] for lots of things in that movie. I’m a little bit hesitant to point out what they are — or even talk about it — because in my business, we’re trying to foster the illusion of reality, right?” he told Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw. “It’s sort of like if you went to a magic show and the magician walked out and said, ‘Just before I start, I want you to know there’s another bunny under here. (And] this guy’s a plant.’ You know, it’s sort of ruined, right? But yes, we did use it, and in fact, I thought it was a good example (of how to use AI ethically) because it’s a very human movie.”
Other humans in the movie include Gillian Anderson, Steven Yuen and Kerry Washington; Animals premieres on Netflix on Oct. 9.
At this point, Affleck and Netflix are deeply in bed together when it comes to AI. Affleck sold his AI company InterPositive to the streamer for nearly $600 million, so he’s much more bullish on the technology than your average Hollywood heavyweight. He’s also far more knowledgable.
But word is getting out and panic is subsiding, he said. Once a filmmaker spends time with AI tools and gain “a sense of control” over it, the technology “moves from this nebulous, abstract, terrifying alien — you know, ‘It’s going to kill us all,’ all this propaganda — and they actually see what it is,” everyone chills out, Affleck said.
“It’s another form of computing… a technological advancement that’s really in keeping with the longstanding series of technological improvements we’ve made in the film and television business,” he continued. Affleck further stated that he doesn’t believe AI will ever provide the ability for a filmmaker to “type [a prompt] in and make a movie that people want to see.”
Also during the conversation, Affleck dispelled the notion that Netflix made him and Matt Damon regularly restate the plot of their movie The Rip. Affleck says he and Damon went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to explain that their experience with the streaming giant “was utterly contrary” to the Damon quote that quickly went viral.
“Somebody went ahead and did a pull quote, and it got picked up once, and it was, ‘Matt Damon says Netflix makes you tell the plot in the first five minutes,’” Affleck recalled. “If you just stop and think about it— I’m in this movie, I’m directing. Even if that were true, do you think I would go on Joe Rogan and be like, ‘They made me put all this obvious shit in my movie’? Like, it doesn’t even make sense.”
To be fair, it was awfully confusing the way Damon said what he said.
“For instance, Netflix — the standard way to make an action movie, that we learned, was you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third — and the big one with all the explosions and you spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your kind of finale,” Damon said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “Now, [Netflix is] like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes?’ We want people to stay tuned in. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.”
“[Netflix] would never do that,” Affleck said tonight. “I don’t know that I’ve never met anyone who’s had a note that idiotic and brazen — and I’ve heard of a lot of idiotic studio notes. Idiotic studio notes long predate Netflix. This is a business with a long history of executives telling you to do the exact wrong thing that’s going to ruin your movie.”
