Ben Affleck says he used AI for ‘lots of things’ in Netflix’s Animals

Ben Affleck has admitted he used AI to make Animals, his new Netflix thriller. He just won’t tell you which parts. Speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime event on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, the director and star said he used the technology “for lots of things in that movie”, according to The Playlist.

Asked to name them, he declined. Affleck said he was “a little bit hesitant” to point them out, and compared it to a magician walking on stage and announcing there is another bunny under the hat, according to The A.V. Club’s account of the session. Deadline reported that he called Animals “a very human movie”.

The timing matters. Animals reaches Netflix on Friday, 9 October, and the AI company Affleck founded now belongs to Netflix. So the question of where the line sits between a filmmaking tool and a replacement for crews is no longer a panel debate for him.

What did Ben Affleck say about AI in Animals?

Ben Affleck said AI was used for many things on Animals and that he believes the film shows how to use it ethically, but he would not list the shots or scenes involved. He was interviewed on stage by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, The Playlist reported on Thursday, 1 October.

He also played down the panic around AI in Hollywood, calling it another form of computing, according to the same report. The A.V. Club tied his comments to the rules he set out in March: no images generated from text prompts, no replacing people, and AI used only in post-production for jobs such as fixing lighting, swapping backgrounds or covering a missing shot.

A day later, at the Animals premiere on Thursday, 1 October, he went further. Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter that his approach is simple: “It’s not about making fake people or replacing anybody, ever.”

How did we get here?

Affleck’s AI story started long before the Bloomberg panel.

2022: Affleck founds InterPositive, a start-up that builds AI tools which work from a film’s own footage rather than from text prompts, according to Gulf News.
November 2024: At CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference, he says AI is “a craftsman at best” and unlikely to replace real filmmaking, Fortune reported.
5 February 2025: Matt Damon steps away from starring in Animals because of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and Affleck takes the lead role as well as directing. Damon stays on as a producer, according to Jang.
5 March 2026: Netflix buys InterPositive and makes Affleck a senior adviser, Gulf News reported. Bloomberg had reported the deal could be worth up to $600 million; Netflix later put the total purchase price at about $587 million in cash in a US securities filing, Variety reported in July.
12 August 2026: Netflix releases the first teaser and confirms the 9 October date on Tudum.
30 September 2026: Affleck tells Bloomberg’s Screentime audience that AI was used on the film.

In under two years, the man who called AI a craftsman has sold an AI company to the streamer releasing his film, and now says he used AI on that film.

What is Animals about, and who is in it?

Animals is an R-rated political thriller about a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped. Affleck plays the candidate, Mark Kimball, and Kerry Washington plays his wife, Abigail, according to Netflix’s Tudum. Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Adriana Paz are also in the cast.

Affleck co-wrote the script with Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray, according to What’s on Netflix. The film comes from Artists Equity, the studio Affleck set up with Damon, in partnership with Fifth Season.

Can you watch Animals on Netflix in Nigeria?

Yes. When GistMatrix checked Netflix’s Nigerian site at about 4:30am WAT on Friday, 2 October, the Animals page was live with its teaser and trailer, an 18+ rating and the full cast list. Netflix Nigeria plans on the same page ran from ₦2,500 a month for Mobile to ₦8,500 for Premium.

What’s on Netflix lists it as a global release, so Nigerian subscribers should get it on the same day as the rest of the world.

What happens next

Animals starts streaming on Netflix worldwide, including Nigeria, and in selected cinemas on Friday, 9 October 2026. As of 5:30am WAT on 2 October, neither Affleck nor Netflix had said which scenes used AI, although Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere that the aim was never to make “fake people”.

FAQ

Did Ben Affleck use AI in Animals?
Yes. He said at Bloomberg’s Screentime event on 30 September 2026 that he used AI “for lots of things” in the film, but he did not say which scenes. At the premiere a day later, he told The Hollywood Reporter it was “not about making fake people or replacing anybody”.

When is Animals out on Netflix?
Friday, 9 October 2026, worldwide. The Netflix Nigeria page for the film is already live.

What is InterPositive?
It is the AI filmmaking company Affleck founded in 2022. Netflix bought it in March 2026, and Affleck is now a senior adviser to the streamer.

Would it change how you watch a film if you knew AI was used on it? Tell us in the comments.

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