Clearly the role fed into the actor’s private struggles, as it has for other actors, who have struggled in the name of Gotham City
There seem to be two essential prisms through which to view the celebrity star suffering in the spotlight. The first is the cynical tabloid editor’s perspective, picked up from decades of watching famous faces prostitute themselves in the name of publicity: the idea here is that those who place themselves in the public eye, who want the attention that comes with fame, are not really entitled to compassion.
The second view, with which it is hard not to sympathise when reading about Ben Affleck’s struggles with alcoholism and his time as Batman in the
New York Times, is that no matter how rich and privileged a well-known figure might be, they are flawed human beings like the rest of us who are worthy of our empathy when they find themselves in dark places. Affleck was a terrible Batman, entirely the wrong choice to play Bruce Wayne in Warner Bros’ ill-conceived extended universe of DC comic book movies, but it remains sad to witness how the actor’s struggles with the role fed into his private life.