The Batman references were unavoidable during an exclusive Q-and-A for David Fincher’s Gone Girl, a masterful murder mystery that opened the New York Film Festival on Friday night. When an audience member referred to Gone Girl star Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne, the Oscar winner hung his head and smiled, to which Fincher joked, "And so, it begins."
Apparently it even began while David Fincher and his cast filmed Gone Girl. During the lengthy and revelatory Q-and-A, Affleck and co-star Rosamund Pike discussed the amount of weight that the actress had to gain (and lose) to play "Amazing" Amy at different points of her… um, journey. (It’s hard to talk about Gone Girl without dabbling in spoilers, but I’ll try my best.) Pike explained that "to play the real Amy, and to play another persona she's created was very daunting. We did jump around a lot. A lot of it was dictated by the weight fluctuations that occurred. I had to be heavier and thinner in all the different locations."
Her co-star joked, "I just went heavier." To which Pike revealed:
Well, Ben was becoming Batman before my eyes. By the time we were in the shower, I was with Batman."
The "shower" scene will mean a lot to those who had read the book. They’ll know that it occurs near the end of the movie, when certain characters are at their most… vulnerable. Shoot. This is hard. Too hard. The joy of Gone Girl is learning the reveals in the moment, so I’ll stop there.
But, it’s fun to note that demands on Ben Affleck to play the Dark Knight in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Unless you are Robert De Niro in his prime, it’s very difficult to bulk up, slim down and fluctuate the way that you need to for a superhero epic like Batman, or even a thriller like Gone Girl. The actor’s voice has been hoarse on this Gone Girl press tour, and we’re hearing it’s because he is under the weather with a cold. We’d rather believe it’s because he’s spending too many sleepless nights on a faux Gotham set, growling at criminals and screaming at the "Blue Boyscout," Superman (Henry Cavill) for the 2016 blockbuster.
Gone Girl casts Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, a quiet, unassuming and socially awkward Midwesterner who’s suddenly accused of killing his perfect wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). It opens everywhere on October 3.
