Was Ben Affleck intoxicated or did he just get extremely emotional about his New England Patriots and deflategate? Who can really say? While this portion of Affleck's interview on Any Given Wednesday was the subject of much debate, another interesting aspect of his chat with Bill Simmons was Affleck's reaction to being questioned about whether he was in line to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens before J.J. Abrams. Affleck played coy, stating, "Well I wouldn’t be able to say. It wouldn’t be polite to talk about the jobs you turned down. But I did have a lot of offers."
He doesn't say it in so many words, but Affleck strongly implies he had the gig. Imagine if Affleck had taken the job? How different would the DCEU look today? Jeffrey Dean Morgan portrayed Thomas Wayne in Dawn of Justice but was initially a very strong contender for the roleof Bruce Wayne before Affleck was cast (as was Thanos actor Josh Brolin). Of course, it's all water under the bridge now but Affleck's revelation makes for fun a fun bar topic discussion, at the very least.
The timing is also somewhat interesting - in January 2013, Abrams was confirmed as director of
Episode VII and in August, it was revealed that Affleck would be playing Bruce Wayne in
Dawn of Justice. Check out this interview back in November 2012, where Affleck was innocently asked about directing Episode VII and judge his reaction for yourself.