Filmmaker Mike Binder has revealed a juicy bit of Hollywood gossip involving Steven Spielberg and Ben Affleck, claiming that the legendary director refused to work with the actor due to an alleged incident involving one of his sons years ago.
During an episode of Stephen Baldwin's podcast One Bad Movie in November, Binder, 67, claimed that he and Spielberg had collaborated on the initial drafts of Binder's 2006 movie Man About Town. However, when Affleck was cast as the lead, Spielberg, now 79, balked at the idea of directing the film.
"Steven says, 'No. Can't do it with [Affleck]. We just bombed with a movie with him, he's got that whole J. Lo thing going on now, and I have other problems with him,'" Binder claimed Spielberg told him after he shared the casting news. (Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's first engagement ended in 2004, while Man About Town was in development.)
Binder claimed that during a family vacation, Affleck accompanied Paltrow, now 53, and Spielberg's family. During this trip, one of Spielberg's sons allegedly pushed Affleck into a pool while he was fully clothed. "Ben came in fully dressed and my son pushed Ben into the pool, and Ben got really mad at him, and he came out of the pool and he picked him up and threw him back into the pool and made my son cry," Binder claimed Spielberg told him.
When Binder asked what this anecdote had to do with the movie, Spielberg reportedly responded, "I just don't like to work with him. Plus his last two movies bombed. Find somebody else. Anyone but him."
"He's cold as hell," Binder said. "So I call Ben's agent and I say, 'It's not going to work.' Ben calls me up and he goes, 'Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that what happened, is that why I'm not on your movie?'"
Despite the alleged incident, Binder ultimately called Spielberg again and insisted that Affleck remain on the movie. The following day, he learned that Spielberg's film studio DreamWorks had dropped the project and would let him make Man About Town with a different company. The movie was released in 2006 to negative reviews; Binder himself said on the podcast that he made "a s--- movie."
Binder also recalled that he kept this experience in mind when Affleck's 2013 movie Argo won Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards over Spielberg's Lincoln. "He's at the Academy Awards and they're hugging, and I text him, I'm watching it, I go, 'Ben, tonight you could throw Spielberg's whole family in the pool and get away with it,'" he said. "About an hour later, the phone rings. It's Affleck. He goes, 'That made me laugh so f---ing hard.'"
"And I told Steven that story too, and he goes 'Yeah, I think that night,'" Binder added. "That was like my one moment of dealing with those super hotshots and they were, like, great guys yet at the same time a---holes. They were like everybody else. Steven Spielberg is a genius and a great guy, but he can be an a---hole, and Ben Affleck is a great guy, and he can be a bigger a---hole."
