Ben Effleck reveals why his ex-wife Jennifer Garner declined to star opposite him

Ben Effleck and ex-wife Jennifer Garner nearly reunited onscreen.

Ben is starring in the upcoming thriller as Mark Kimball who is a mayoral hopeful of Los Angeles as per the official trailer. Moreover he is also serving as the director and co-writer of the movie with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray.

According to the synopsis of the film, “When their son is kidnapped, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate and his wife find themselves drawn into a web of deception.”

“As they scramble to raise the ransom payment, they’re forced to make choices – and reveal secrets – that could tear their world apart,” it further teased.

It is worth noting here that along with Ben the upcoming movie features a star-studded cast including Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Ray Fisher, Adriana Paz and Kerry Washington who is starring opposite Ben as his wife.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ben opened up about the challenges of marriage that he wanted to delve into in the movie. “How do you maintain a relationship? That’s obviously something that was on my mind,” he said.

He noted, “What does a marriage really require of us? How well can we know one another?”

The actor-director also revealed that his former wife, Jennifer Garner was considered for the role of Mark Kimball's wife but she refused, “I thought, God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role,” Ben said.

The Oscar winner went on to say, “It also has the added benefit of, like, both of us will see our kids more because we do a week and a week and back and forth. I thought, well, we can coordinate our schedules around it.”

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

“I would love to work with her, frankly. She’s fabulous, and we’re really good friends, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have a great thing,” Affleck added. “I still would wanna work with her in the future, but what you don’t wanna do is take the audience’s baggage and have it work against you, you know?” he further revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that Animals is set to release on October 9.