Ben Affleck is opening up about a traumatic experience he had as a teenager.
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the 54-year-old actor kicked off Season 5 of Kerry Washington’s Street You Grew Up On podcast, where he revealed that he once escaped an attack by someone who later went on to kill another person.
Affleck reflected on growing up in a “working class” area of Cambridge, Mass. He explained that “poor people sort of like, feeling like they were fighting it out” when Washington asked him if he was ever robbed.
“Well, yeah,” he replied.
“In fact, I remember I was walking home from high school, I was 14 maybe, and I saw these two kids in like literal hoods on the other side of the street. And, you know, it’s kind of one of those things where you’re like, ‘All right,’ ” he said.
The Gone Girl star said he knew something bad was going to happen. The kids crossed the street, and he thought about running away, but decided to act calm instead.
“They pass me, grab me, take a knife out, [and say] ‘Give me your money,’” he recalled.
“I was scared,” Affleck admitted. “But then out of the corner of my eye, I realized who they were. I recognized them from playing baseball and they were like older boys that I knew and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, what’s up?’ And so I guess I was like, I guess I’m off the hook.”
While he walked away unscathed, unfortunately, a future victim suffered a different outcome.
“And actually, that kid who robbed me ended up, I don’t know three or four years later, killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years,” Affleck told his Animals costar. “So there was that, you know what I mean? And you were kind of aware of it.”
Affleck and Washington star in Netflix’s Animals, which hits theaters and the streamer on Oct. 9.