Ben Affleck has worn many hats over the course of his nearly thirty-year career. The multi-hyphenate entertainer serves as the director, producer, co-writer, and lead actor of the upcoming Netflix film Animals. But while Affleck has plenty of experience shaping films behind and in front of the camera, completing the political crime thriller’s script was more of a communal effort than some might expect, with crucial parts of the movie coming together only after the final cast was assembled.
After a couple of production setbacks and recasting its main roles (Matt Damon and Jennifer Garner were once set to lead the film), Animals entered production with Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, and Luis Gerardo Méndez starring alongside Affleck. Washington portrays Abigail, the wife of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, played by Affleck. Their strained marriage forms much of the film’s emotional core after their son is kidnapped, putting them in a ransom situation where long-held secrets that could destroy their lives are forced out into the open.
In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Washington explained that the scenes and relationships in the film were shaped significantly after the Scandal actress joined the cast, noting that every actor made contributions to the script.
“Honestly, everybody was so collaborative. Like Ben, really, we had a rehearsal process where we all worked together on the script, and there’s not a single actor in it who hasn’t contributed.”
The two-time Tony Award nominee went on to reveal that two of her co-stars essentially wrote their own scenes after being given the necessary story beats, comparing the experience to working on a theater production.
“I mean, Luis and Adriana, they wrote their scenes completely. You know, you guided them on what’s going to happen here, but they wrote those scenes. The scene with Steven and I, the three of us workshopped that scene together. There was a lot of magic that was discovered in the rehearsal process, which is so … old-school theater process. It’s so fun and so wonderful.”
Affleck agreed, stressing that every aspect of Mark and Abigail’s marriage was influenced by what Washington brought to the character, referring to his lead actress as a “co-director.”
“But there was nothing that wasn’t about that marriage in relation – not a line, not a moment, not an idea – that wasn’t related to what Kerry brought to it, and me going, ‘How does that work?’ You know what I mean? And just finding more stuff, and like, I really had, like, co-writers and really … with Kerry, a co-director on this … That’s the truth.”
Washington reframes Affleck’s take as “us working together,” but also explained that his open collaboration process allowed the actors to mine Animals’ themes of marriage, honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity between two characters who have avoided being honest with each other.
“It’s only when they feel like they’re losing everything – their house, their kid, their everything – that they begin to think it might be okay to be fully honest with this person, you know?”
Adriana Paz agreed that Affleck’s approach was beneficial to the acting process, noting that the Argo actor gave the cast control over their characters’ lines.
“Before getting there … we were reading the script, and we were like, ‘This does not feel natural,’ or ‘This is not something that we [would] say.’ Ben Affleck told us from the beginning, ‘You are able to change everything you want.'”
She went on to explain that the actors getting the opportunity to rehearse inside the house they later filmed in helped them build the relationships between the characters, calling the rehearsal process “so enjoyable” and telling MovieWeb that she “didn’t want the movie to end.”
The screenplay, officially co-written by Affleck, Connor McIntyre, and Billy Ray, seems like a prime example of a director trusting his actors’ input and experiences rather than dictating to them. The trust Affleck placed in his cast, along with the extensive script rewrites, could elevate Animals above the standard kidnapping thriller.
- Release Date
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October 9, 2026
- Runtime
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106 minutes
