His skin is as thick as Batman’s armor!
Ben Affleck claims he’s tough enough to handle haters who say he’ll flop as the next on-screen Batman.
The “Argo” star on Monday responded to criticism — that he’s too wimpy, hairy and “vanilla” to be cast in the role — on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”
He said Warner Brothers executives first warned him to stay off the internet to shield him from backlash over the casting choice.
“I’m a big boy..[producers] said just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days. … I handle shit. I’m very tough. I saw the announcement, I look down on the first comment and the first one just goes, ‘Nooooooooo!’ ” he said on the interview.
He then joked, “We’re gonna be luddites for a while, kids.”
He also said producers sent him links to examples of other actors who suffered criticism after casting choices.
‘[They said] Listen, we want to talk to you because people go through this process and it can be trying,’ ” Affleck said.
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘[They said]We want to show you some of the reactions that past people who have been cast have gotten, like on the Internet and stuff.'”
“They send me [reactions for] people who were in these movies who did a great job and [commenters] say, ‘Kill himmmm!’ ” Affleck said.
But he added,”You can’t say that before a movie comes out. It doesn’t matter what you think then, it matters what you think when you see the movie.”
Warner Brothers announced on Aug. 22 Affleck will play Batman in an upcoming sequel to Man of Steel, which will pit Superman against Batman.
Comic book fans and movie buffs quickly took to Twitter to slam the studio for choosing Affleck.
“Ben Affleck is the new Batman in the Superman mashup — really? Pee-wee Herman wasn’t available?” tweeted Keeley Ibrahim.
The movie will also feature “Man of Steel” co-stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and Diane Lane as Martha Kent.