Ben Affleck: Alejandro G. Inarritu "Is Given to Occasional Overstatement" About Superhero Films

Affleck, who stars as the Dark Knight in 'Batman v Superman,' was referring to an Inarritu comment that superhero movies are "cultural genocide."

Actor-director Ben Affleck disagrees with Mexican filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu that the superhero movie craze is leading to "cultural genocide," as the Oscar-winning helmer remarked in a 2014 interview with Deadline.

Speaking at a Mexico City news conference ahead of Saturday's world premiere of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Affleck had this to say about the Revenant director's comments.

"I know Alejandro and he's a great guy and a brilliant filmmaker and I admire him enormously," said Affleck. "And El Chivo [Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki] is a friend of mine. Alejandro is also given to overstatement. I wouldn't call it cultural genocide, but he's brilliant and his point is taken that you can't just swallow up cinema with any kind of movie."

In the Deadline interview, Inarritu said he "sometimes enjoys superhero movies" but sees many with a right-wing message.

"They have been poison, this cultural genocide," he is quoted as saying.

On a lighter note, a reporter asked Affleck to comment on a rumor that he was rewriting the Batman v Superman script in his bat suit during production (never mind that Affleck has no writing credit for the picture).

"That is the dumbest rumor," said Affleck, who co-wrote the Oscar winner Good Will Hunting. "I just like how if I was gonna go write, I would put on this bat suit first because it's so comfortable to write in. I didn't rewrite anything in any outfit, my underwear or otherwise."

Affleck took questions alongside co-star Henry Cavill, who plays Superman, director Zack Snyder and Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman. The film also features Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Snyder said he was actually considering Eisenberg for a different role, but all that changed after they met.

"He's got this amazing way about him and you can never tell whether he's being self-deprecating or whether he's insulting you, and I mean that as a compliment. (Laughs). I thought he offered really amazing possibilities for Lex," said the helmer.

Unlike Snyder and Affleck, Cavill didn't read comic books as a kid.

"I read Greek mythology as a boy and I loved it," he said. "These guys who we are playing are just modern mythological heroes in today's pop culture."

Again, a difference of opinion with Inarritu.

"The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological thing. And they are honestly very right-wing," Inarritu told Deadline. "I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not who you want them to be. I hate that, and don't respond to those characters."