Ben Affleck, the actor, 54, told “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host Jimmy Kimmel that his three children have stopped treating his advice as gospel, and that at his own dinner table he has become “the caricature in this story.” Affleck appeared on the show on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, to promote “Animals,” a Netflix thriller.
“I give advice and try to talk to them, parent them, as you do. What I found is that now it’s not only one teenager rolling their eyes, I’ll kind of launch into something at the dinner table, and I’ll catch them giving each other looks, and I realize I’m the caricature in this story,” Affleck told Kimmel.
A Dinner Table Turns
Affleck said he still parents out loud — offering guidance, weighing in, passing along what he has learned. The problem, he said, is the audience. He said he never pictured a stage of life in which he stopped being the cool dad.
Affleck shares his children with his ex-wife, the actress Jennifer Garner: Violet, 20; Seraphina, 17, who is non-binary and goes by Fin; and Samuel, 14.
The conversation turned to his kids’ friends, their drama and their relationships. Affleck figured he had lived experience worth sharing. His 17-year-old disagreed. “The 17-year-old just turns to me and goes, ‘Oh, like you’re the expert on relationships?'” Affleck told Kimmel.
Kimmel, a father of four, responded during the Sept. 24 taping: “On one hand, you’re kinda happy that your kids are on like the same team. But then on the other hand, you’re the opponent.”
The Bookstore Deadpan
Affleck said he took the same teen to a bookstore, where they drifted past front displays with the covers turned outward. One book on display, by a French author, carried the title “I’m Sorry for Everything.” Affleck said Fin didn’t break stride before delivering the line: “Oh look, Dad, it’s your autobiography.”
Affleck said he was proud of the line. “I was kind of proud of them, though. Like, ‘My kid’s, that’s a good line. I like that,'” he said.
Affleck’s toughest critic on his romantic history is his 17-year-old — not a tabloid, a late-night monologue or a podcast. The relationship jab is the part that escaped the studio, and entertainment writers passed the exchange around online. Affleck doesn’t seem to be mounting a defense; he kept telling the story as though the kid had won.
Promoting a New Thriller
“Animals” is due Oct. 9. Affleck plays a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped in the middle of the campaign, and the actress Kerry Washington plays his wife.
Affleck told Kimmel he had considered casting Garner as his wife in the film, and that she turned him down. “Jen was like, ‘Great, but no, I’m not gonna play your wife in a movie,'” he said, adding, “Probably for the best. That lesson has been learned.”
Discussing the declined role in the same interview, Affleck praised Garner: “She’s fabulous, and we’re really good friends, and I’m profoundly grateful to her, and we have a great thing.”
The actor Steven Yeun plays his campaign manager. Affleck said he and Yeun spent a day at The Grove in Los Angeles campaigning in character, shaking hands, working the crowd and staying in it. Nobody questioned why a man who looked exactly like Ben Affleck was running for mayor, Affleck said. In Los Angeles, a movie star canvassing for municipal office at an outdoor shopping center barely registers as unusual.
A Recurring Late-Night Segment
Affleck and his ex-wife Jennifer Lopez, the singer and actress, finalized their divorce in January 2025, after two years of marriage. Their engagement had been called off years earlier. Affleck married Garner in 2005, and that divorce was finalized in 2018.
The kids have been building a case for a while. In April 2025, while promoting “The Accountant 2,” Affleck sat in the same chair and told Kimmel that his children had roasted him after watching “Armageddon.” It is becoming a recurring segment.