Ben Affleck explains why he won't run for political office

Ben Affleck is firmly ruling out a future in elected politics, despite playful encouragement from his Animals castmates during the film's red carpet premiere. 

Co-star Kerry Washington, who plays Affleck's on-screen wife in the Netflix political thriller, told reporters the cast has repeatedly pushed him toward public office. 

"We keep telling him that he should, but he doesn't want to," she said.

"You know, we're in a place in our politics right now where anything is possible, but I would hope that the people who are running for office want to be there, and he has been very explicit in saying that he doesn't want to run for office."

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Affleck, who directs and stars in the film as a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, responded to the suggestion with a joke, "Maybe they hate me", before offering a more serious explanation of his disillusionment with the modern political process. 

"We don't ask the question of what are your qualifications to hold public office any longer," he said. 

"It's, 'You wanna join the circus? Who's the biggest carny?' And that's a problem." 

He went on to describe a broader sense of dissatisfaction shared across the political spectrum. 

"There's nobody alive now who thinks, hey, we're really doing it right and things are going great and I love this political system." 

Affleck argued that elected officials today are driven primarily by fundraising and personal attacks rather than genuine leadership, saying, "It's just about money, raising money, it's just about playing a sort of adolescent game of who can make fun of the other person better or be more reductive and stupid about something rather than actually trying to talk about the issues." 

He added that effective leadership requires a different approach entirely, "You can't just scare people. You can't just hector them. You can't lecture them. You can't guilt them into it."

Ultimately, Affleck said his decision comes down to a simple cost-benefit calculation. 

"Selfishly, I just see what a difficult grind of a job it is and I'd rather make movies about it." 

The sentiment echoes comments Affleck has made publicly for over a decade, including a 2013 statement ruling out a run for John Kerry's vacated Senate seat in Massachusetts. 

Animals, Affleck's latest directorial effort following The Town and the Oscar-winning Argo, premieres in select theaters and on Netflix October 9.

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