Ben Affleck 'regrets' asking ancestry show to omit slave-owning relatives
Ben Affleck, star of Gone Girl and Zack Snyder's upcoming Batman vs. Superman, has addressed the controversy over trying to hide details of his ancestry after being featured in the PBS series Finding Your Roots this past October.
Affleck, 42, addressed the controversy in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The controversy began when an email chain between Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton and Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of Finding Your Roots, was leaked as part of the 2014 Sony hack. That email chain is now available on WikiLeaks, which has uploaded all of the information in the Sony hacks to their website in its entirety.
In the chain, Gates asks for Lynton's advice about a recent "megastar's" request to have footage of his ancestry edited out. While that megastar is never actually named by Gates, they are referred to as "Batman," the character that Ben Affleck will play in 2016's Batman vs. Superman.
On April 17, Gates denied removing footage at Affleck's request in a statement on PBS's website.
"I maintain editorial control on all of my projects and, with my producers, decide what will make for the most compelling program," Gates said in his statement. "In the case of Mr. Affleck - we focused on what we felt were the most interesting aspects of his ancestry-including a Revolutionary War ancestor, a 3rd great-grandfather who was an occult enthusiast, and his mother who marched for Civil Rights during the Freedom Summer of 1964."
Affleck is best known for Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl and directing/starring in Argo, which received the Best Picture Oscar in 2013. Affleck will star in Zack Snyder's Batman vs. Superman in 2016.
