Why You Won’t See Jennifer Garner in Animals

Affleck then decided to take over Damon’s role. That would have placed him opposite Garner as one half of a troubled married couple, a setup with enough real-life context to distract from the fictional crisis.

“I talked to Jen, and she was like, ‘We don’t wanna do that. You just get baggage,’” Affleck said.

Garner consequently declined the part.

Who replaced Garner in Animals?

The role went to Kerry Washington, who said the deeply troubled relationship between the husband and wife attracted her to the project.

Washington described the characters as having a “pretty horrible dynamic,” adding that she was interested in watching their marriage change as the kidnapping crisis unfolded.

“It was exciting to see the journey of their marriage through this traumatic unfolding of events,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “There are certain couples where, when tragedy strikes, or there’s a crisis at hand, it either moves them closer together or breaks them apart.”

The part therefore remained focused on the fictional marriage rather than inviting audiences to spend the film comparing it with Affleck and Garner’s history. For a tense kidnapping drama, one major source of offscreen tension was apparently enough.

Could Affleck and Garner work together again?

Affleck said he remains open to another collaboration with Garner, provided the roles do not turn their former relationship into an unavoidable part of the viewing experience.

The pair previously appeared together in the 2003 superhero film Daredevil. They separated in 2015 after 10 years of marriage and have since maintained a close friendship while raising their three children.

“She’s fabulous, and we’re really good friends, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have a great thing,” Affleck said.

He added that he would “love” to work with Garner again, but acknowledged that audiences bring their own knowledge to a film.

“What you don’t wanna do is take the audience’s baggage and have it work against you, you know?” he said.

So the answer is not never. It is simply not while pretending to be a collapsing married couple in a kidnapping thriller.