Ben Affleck has no interest in running for public office.
The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice star told Variety that trying to be a politician felt “horrible” and “vulgar” to him.
“I think this is a huge — I don’t know, man, this looks scary,” Affleck said while promoting a new movie in which he plays an L.A. mayoral candidate.
“There’s a reason why political stories are often chosen as examples of moral compromise. You really get caught up in the contrast between our ideal version of what we should be like in our lives, and how that is.”
The 54-year-old politician said, “For me, politics is a very depressing world. It’s ugly. And that doesn’t appeal to me at all.”
He also refused to tell the press who he is supporting for mayor of Los Angeles this November.
“I never thought I’d be asked this. Considering this movie, I don’t know if my support would hurt or help anyone,” he admitted. “I have to remain agnostic, at least until the movie comes out.”
“The common bar of politics has become so diminished because of the evolution of the political world that people are looking for something like, ‘Someone shoot me straight,'” Affleck told Good Morning America on Wednesday.
He added that whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, there’s a perception in the country that “we’re not doing a very good job. We have a system that’s failing us.”
Playing a man running for mayor taught him: “It’s not that fun. And it would be a hard road; you’re just constantly raising money.”
He said he and the man who plays the campaign manager in the movie decided one day to buy campaign T-shirts and hats with his character’s name and go out to Los Angeles and claim to be running for mayor.
Affleck said that when he told people he was portraying his character, voters would ask for a selfie, they were interested, and “people would get caught up in the whole thing, and I was like, ‘If I’m not careful, I’m going to win this.'”
“Don’t vote for me for mayor!” he joked to the camera.
In an interview with USA Today via The Sacramento Bee this week, Affleck said staying in office was a “horrible job,” adding that he was “very disappointed in the system, the politics, the politicians, the way the system works.”
When told that the campaign advertising in the film was good, he replied: “I’d be proud of it, but I think the bar is too low in politics these days.”
Affleck explained that the movie “Animals” is about the moral compromises people make.
“His nature, which is extremely effective when a person individually has something to lose, is when he or she is most prone to compromise,” he says. “Looking back, are we selfish animals, coming up with stories to rationalize where we’ve been and what we’ve done? And there’s another part of us, a kind of higher self, that says, ‘I’m going to follow these moral rules even if it costs me something.'”
The actor has been politically active in the past, campaigning for candidates from former Vice President Al Gore to former President Barack Obama.
But he said he was now “against” the idea because he saw too much “hypocrisy, corruption and failure”.
“The way it’s built now is based on money, soundbites, cruelty and nonsense and little nasty things that don’t actually have anything to do with people’s lives,” he said. “And increasingly, it’s easier to get votes by appealing to people’s worst aspects than it is by appealing to their best aspects. If you’re telling a story about some kind of morality and compromise, there’s a lot of pressure that’s constantly asking you to sacrifice your principles.”