10 Actors Who Just Quit Huge Movies
7. Matt Damon - Animals
Ben Affleck returns to the director's chair for his first foray into crime thriller territory since 2016's disappointing Live By Night, and in a fun twist, Affleck was originally set to direct his lifelong friend and regular collaborator Matt Damon in the lead role.
Damon was planning to star in Netflix's Animals as Milo Bradford, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped, forcing him to gets his hands dirty in order to raise the ransom money.
Though Damon was first announced to be leading the film back in January 2024, he ended up dropping out this past February due to scoring the lead role in Christopher Nolan's new epic The Odyssey.
At this point Affleck decided to throw himself in the mix, taking over the role from his pal.
On one hand this allowed Affleck to keep the production going rather than grind it to a halt while seeking out a new lead elsewhere, but it also evidently meant a ton of extra work for him.
Impressively, shooting started mere weeks after this switcheroo was made, though as director, Affleck should've already had a pretty strong grasp of his protagonist anyway.