Mayor of the Night, Ben Affleck Premieres Animals in Westwood
Ben Affleck directed, co-wrote and stars in the Netflix kidnapping thriller, which premiered in Westwood on October 1.
A Los Angeles thriller came home to Los Angeles on Thursday night. Animals, the Netflix crime film Ben Affleck directed, co-wrote and stars in, held its world premiere at the Westwood Village Theater on October 1, one week before it opens in select theaters and begins streaming on October 9.
Affleck plays Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son Denny is kidnapped, leaving him and his wife Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, scrambling for the ransom. Gillian Anderson plays Dayle, a mysterious fixer, and the ensemble includes Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Christopher Woodley. Affleck wrote the script with Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray, and the film was shot around Los Angeles. Velvet also covered A Shovel on Broxton Avenue, Tom Cruise Brings Digger to Westwood.
Matt Damon walked the carpet with his wife, Luciana Damon, and both are producers on the film, which was made with Artists Equity, the company Damon and Affleck founded with Gerry Cardinale. Damon was originally attached to play Kimball, but by the time Affleck returned to the script, Damon’s schedule was tied up with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, TheWrap reported, so Affleck took the role himself. Ray Fisher, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and chief content officer Bela Bajaria were also in the house.
Washington arrived in white, a one-shoulder Carolina Herrera dress from the label’s resort 2027 collection, with a zebra-striped crystal clutch and David Webb’s black enamel and diamond Checkmate ring.
The film has also put Affleck at the center of Hollywood’s AI argument. Netflix bought his AI company InterPositive in March for $587 million, and a day before the premiere he said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event that the production used AI “for lots of things.” On the carpet he told The Hollywood Reporter his approach is “really simple, I wouldn’t use something that trains on or has learned from any work that is copywritten, or that is an intelligence created by a peer of mine or somebody that I look up to.”
“It’s not about making fake people or replacing anybody, ever,” he added.
