Ben Affleck still spends his downtime in online lobbies, and he is not always winning. The actor and director said on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce that he regularly plays first-person shooter games, including Call Of Duty, and often finds himself outmatched by much younger opponents.
«I think I'm good and then 12-year-olds just fuck me up,» Affleck said. «I try to come out and I'm like, 'Here I come' [but] I get killed right away. Then they taunt you [and] I end up getting in arguments. 'Fuck you! I don't suck! I'm a grown man!'»
The admission places one of Hollywood's best-known actors inside a gaming culture that has long been defined by anonymous, cross-generational trash talk. Affleck's frustration is a familiar experience for adult players who drop into competitive shooters only to be humbled by faster reflexes and hours of practice logged by teenage rivals.
Affleck also named Fortnite and the EA Sports Madden NFL and NFL 2K titles as games he plays, often with his son. His gaming habit is not new. In 2023, he attended the Valorant Champions tournament in Los Angeles with his son and even commented on organizers adjusting the character Jett in the team-based shooter.
His latest remarks came during a promotional run for Animals, a political thriller now streaming on Netflix. The film casts Affleck as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose life is upended by an ominous phone call. Kerry Washington plays his wife, Abigail, and the official logline asks how far someone would go to protect family and who can be trusted.
The project also gave Affleck a chance to turn his gaming observations into visual choices. He said the film's mysterious kidnapper wears a giant rabbit mask, a costume idea drawn from the random and unusual skins sold in games like Fortnite. He called out what he described as «bullshit» Fortnite skins that cost real-world money, then explained how those digital purchases shaped the movie's look.
«I thought these costumes are so kind of random and unusual, that's what I based the costumes on,» Affleck said. «[In the movie] I thought he'd be getting them off games.»
That detail connects Animals to a broader conversation about how virtual items and in-game economies have become part of mainstream storytelling. Skins are no longer just cosmetic add-ons for players; they are recognizable cultural artifacts that can signal identity, status, or, in Affleck's case, menace on screen.
Animals arrives as Affleck has publicly distanced himself from real-world politics despite playing a candidate in the film. He told USA Today that he has no interest in running for office, describing contemporary politics as built around money, sound bites, cruelties, and gotchas that have little to do with people's lives.
«The way it's constructed now is so geared around money, sound bites, cruelties and gotchas, and little snarky things that really have nothing to do with people's lives whatsoever,» he said. «And increasingly, it's easier to get votes appealing to the worst in people than it is appealing to the best in them.»
For now, Affleck's political engagement appears confined to fiction and his competitive streak to online shooters. The actor's willingness to describe losing to preteens and arguing back in voice chat adds him to a long list of celebrities who treat gaming as an ordinary part of home life rather than a publicity angle.
Animals is available to stream on Netflix.