As we’ve long suspected, Ben Affleck is quite relatable once you take away his successful acting + directing career, money, fame, and marriage to Jennifer Lopez, right down to the Wordle addiction. The only key difference is the public profile of his friendly competition.
The revelation came to light during his most recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, wherein the A-lister of Batman v Superman and Gone Girl fame admitted his predilection for a game known as “Octordle.”
“It’s just Wordle with more words. Don’t be impressed, it’s not harder. I was invited to join a cool little red velvet rope celebrity Wordle group,” explained Ben Affleck.
“Matt [Damon]’s one of them. Jason Bateman and Bradley [Cooper], and… Actually, the first rule of Wordle is don’t talk about Wordle. Unless you get it in three guesses.”
“I used to do the crossword compulsively in the mornings and think I was good at word games. And let’s face it, going up against actors, it’s not a high bar. I expected to do fairly well, so I was seriously humbled.”
“You have to do the Wordle, the Quordle, and the Octordle, and add up your score, and then whoever gets the lowest score wins for the day. It’s fiercely competitive, and there’s a lot of mockery and derision. So I’m in training.”
While it’s unclear when this celebrity Wordle group was established, it’s worth noting three out of the four members listed – Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman – have recently collaborated for the biographical sports drama Air.
Directed by Affleck himself, who also stars as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, this forthcoming film depicts the birth of Nike’s gamechanging partnership with a certain NBA rookie and future icon, Michael Jordan, as told from the perspective of maverick salesman turned company executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon).
Not only would MJ’s eventual signing establish Nike as a major player in sportswear and performance apparel, laying the foundation of a modern empire and altering the entire landscape as we know it in the process, but also mint His Airiness as a certified billionaire. To this day, it’s still the richest athlete endorsement deal in history.
The star-studded cast also features Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler, Julius Tennon as James Jordan, and as per the personal request of MJ himself, Viola Davis as the man’s mother Deloris Jordan.
Air has been written by Alex Covery – whose initial draft Air Jordan was actually named one of the best unproduced screenplays in the 2021 Black List – and will be jointly distributed by Amazon Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures as part of the latter’s ongoing pact with the former’s subsidiary MGM. The project in question represents the very first from Affleck and Damon’s Artist Equity.
Air is scheduled to release on April 5th of 2023, and based on early rave reviews, we’re in for a Moneyball-level heater of a flick – check out the trailer above.
