Ben Affleck needs that Britney Spears — and all celebrities of their stature — had been a bit extra protected.

“This is the factor: When any person’s taking an image of me, I am bummed. As a result of normally I am with my youngsters, I am attempting to go someplace, after which there’s 4 guys who’re like, ‘Hey, man!’ Each time,” the star of The Accountant 2 mentioned on the April 24 episode of This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, addressing the “sad Affleck” memes that sprang from a set of 2020 pap pictures,

“The thought is, like, observe any person round, antagonize them, after which hopefully they will have like a nervous breakdown and go loopy on you, after which your video will probably be value more cash,” Affleck defined.

He then imagined what different A-listers should undergo.

“I can bear in mind a very long time in the past, , years and years in the past, I actually had quite a bit of empathy for Britney Spears,” he mentioned. Although he did not know Spears personally, he mentioned, “Having had my very own experiences, I knew these persons are following her round in a time the place she might or might not have been having issue.”

The best way Affleck sees it, stars do not soften down in entrance of armadas of flashing cameras and screaming paparazzi, they soften down as a result of of such spectacles.

“I do not know her, however I do know that the cycle of having folks harangue you and yell at you and trouble you and observe you, it form of appeared like that itself was whipping up the entire thing right into a tizzy.” he mentioned.

Affleck sees the present system that has successfully normalized the invasion of public figures’ private house as a “form of collective cruelty, the place what’s taken out of the picture that you simply see are the folks waving the stick on the tiger…and all you see is the growling animal.”

As one half of “Bennifer,” the movie star energy couple made up of him and Jennifer Lopez, Affleck ought to know. The duo in all probability saved your entire tabloid journal business alive throughout their temporary relationship within the early 2000s.

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Affleck’s previous few years of romantic engagements with stars like Ana de Armas, ex-wife Jennifer Garner, and Lopez, with whom he reconciled in 2021, married in 2022, and divorced in 2025, have re-ignited paparazzi fervor for the actor, leaving him lower than happy.

The rationale he has “resting onerous face,” as he informed Kevin Hart in a 2024 episode of Peacock’s Hart to Heart, is out of concern for his kids, not himself.

“I do not thoughts, you may take my image at a membership or a premiere, with my spouse, I do not give a f—. Knock your self out. I do not discover you. However with my kids that is a distinct factor,” he mentioned.

You’ll be able to watch the remainder of Ben Affleck’s interview on This Previous Weekend w/ Theo Von above.