Jennifer Lopez isn't the only half of Bennifer who speaks Spanish.
Ben Affleck is going viral on social media after an interview he did in Spanish with the outlet Cadena SER, which posted it online April 3. After just three days, clips from the sitdown had garnered more than 2 million views on TikTok and another 350,000 views on Twitter. The interview was about his movie "Air," which premiered in theaters April 5 and tells the story of how Nike landed Michael Jordan as a client. Affleck produces, directs and stars in the film.
Many fans on TikTok are marveling at the “Air” director's seemingly fluent Spanish chops.
“(It’s) an example of how to get respect from Spanish-speaking communities and promote your movie,” one viewer on TikTok wrote. “Something the rest of artists should do.”
"Is Ben Mexican?" someone else asked, with another TikToker asking "why (does) he sound Cuban?"
Fans on Twitter were equally as impressed.
"The code-switching btw a Mexican and an Argentinian accent here (and) the ability to correct himself when pronouncing something inexact is impressive," one Twitter user tweeted.
"Wait, so he speaks Spanish better than her???" someone else asked, referring to Jennifer Lopez.
“So smooth, dare I say...fluent?” a third wrote.
In the interview, the 50-year-old actor explained in Spanish why Michael Jordan won't appear in "Air."
"The important thing to understand is that this is not Michael Jordan’s story, and Michael Jordan also does not appear in the movie," he said. "He’s so big, so important, so magnificent — there’s not an actor in the world who could lead the audience to believe, ‘Look, it’s Michael Jordan.’ Immediately, they are going to think, ‘All of this is s***. It’s a s*** movie. I don’t believe it.’ And it destroys (the movie) entirely."
Affleck added that he spoke to Jordan and asked which parts of the story did the Bulls legend think were most important to include. The NBA champion's answer was to include his former mentor Howard White, who is now President of the Jordan Brand, and George Raveling, his former Olympic coach who encouraged him to work with Nike. Both men are portrayed in the movie.
"The third and most important, he told me (was), ‘You have to have Viola Davis as my mother.’ And I said, ‘Well, yes, yes.’"
Affleck added that Jordan's words came across as advice to do this story well — or don't do it at all.
"That’s like asking if you can play basketball and responding, ‘Yes, but you need to have Michael Jordan.’"
The "Gone Girl" actor said on the "Kelly Clarkson Show" in 2020 that he learned Spanish when he was 13.
"I speak it passively," he said. "I did this little kids TV series when I was young and when I was 13, the season that year was (shot) in Mexico, so I was in Mexico for a year and that's how I picked it up. So I learned."
He added that he was glad he learned as a teenager.
"The older brain doesn't hold on to information as easy," he said. "I wouldn't know myself, but that's what people have told me who are older."
He said his daughter, Violet, 17, also speaks Spanish, but he refuses to let her proficiency surpass his.
"I don’t mind that I can’t do your math homework — you’re 14-years-old — but you are not going to be better at Spanish than me," he told Clarkson.
"I've decided I've got to take classes. I've got to do something to keep up, because I won't have my 14-year-old — she's like, 'That sounds ridiculous. You're not using the im-preterite...perfect tense,'" he recalled, jokingly mixing together the imperfect and the preterite tense.
He said one thing he keeps in mind is how the language is spoken varies across regions.
"I learn all these words in Mexico. Some good, some... ya know," he said. "And then you go somewhere else, you go to Spain (or) you go to South America, and they're like, 'No, that's not Spanish.'"
"I'm like, 'What are you talking about, it's not Spanish," Affleck exclaimed in disbelief.
"They're like, 'I've never heard that word before in my life."
Sounds like perhaps Affleck's next film could have a storyline in ... Spanish? Fans on social media certainly hope so.
