LOS ANGELES — Ben Affleck is proving that he knows how not to get caught in a franchise trap, despite playing a comic book icon. The versatile actor-director-writer-producer is following up his debut as Batman with a dramatic thriller calledThe Accountant.

“It’s important for me,” Affleck says of changing things up, after being asked by The Toronto Sun about his transition beyond Batman.

In Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant, the 44-year-old Affleck plays the complicated movie’s title character. He is a marginalized man who works by daylight as a forensic accountant and in the night shadows as a vigilante who deals in brutal Equalizer-style justice. This accountant character also happens to be on an extreme of the autism spectrum, like a Rain Man who is heavily armed and dangerous.

At a press conference for The Accountant, Affleck explains his excitement about following Batman v. Superman with The Accountant. He is also in post-production on his next personal project as an actor-director, the 1920s-30s crime thriller,Live by Night. None of these movies is even remotely similar.

“I’m not much of a tactician when it comes to what a career should look like,” Affleck says. “I’m not a big believer in that sort of strategic 36,000-foot planning. It’s more about projects that interest me and move me, and part of that is variation, you know.

“You would get bored doing the same thing over and over again. So I’m lucky I got a chance to do these three movies: Batman and then this movie, which is completely different. And then Live by Night, which is completely different.”

Afterwards, he returns to the screen as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s first instalment of Justice League, due in theatres Nov. 17, 2017. After the press conference, Affleck was set to return to Iceland for one more day of shooting on the DC superhero movie. Not that he wanted to talk about it much. “That’s too far away!”

But, before leaving, he had a lot to say about The Accountant, autism and parenthood (Affleck has three young children with his now estranged wife, actress Jennifer Garner). Here is some of what bubbled up as Affleck sat with director O’Connor and co-stars J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who both play U.S. Treasury agents pursuing “the accountant” for his illegal if morally intriguing activities.

Is there any parallel or similarities between his accountant and Batman/Bruce Wayne?

“The same chin! … You know, if you stretch hard enough you can draw parallels with a lot of different characters. But this is a really distinct and unique character, and a unique film, and that’s what drew me to it. You think you are getting one kind of movie and then you get something that, in my view, is smarter and more interesting and more challenging.”

Where does your performance in The Accountant stand in your career, especially with the autism theme?

“It was a lot of work because we cared about getting it right, because the last thing we wanted to do was a cartoon version or a caricature or an oversimplification, because it is a condition that people really have. So, the more complicated the better because that meant it was more real. The people that we met and talked to all had very complicated situations, very complicated lives, some limitations to do stuff. There was an amazing spectrum of special gifts that we found as well. So it is definitely the most complicated, more interesting character that I have played, for sure.”

In your research meetings with people on the autism spectrum, what was it like, given that O’Connor says many showed up in Batman T-shirts?

“The Batman character has a lot of fans. It turns out that’s a well-known character. So that was kind of fun. There were some people on the spectrum that, just because of how their social thinking works, don’t observe the same social niceties. So I remember one girl said: ‘I’ve never heard of you? Who are you?’ But the truth is people were psyched to be part of making a movie. So they were coming up with ideas for the character. It was also educational because I had this idea of autism as being withdrawn, and these people were actually quite enthusiastic and engaged and fired up about participating, in their own unique way.”

Like Batman v Superman, The Accountant is packed with action and fight scenes (and Affleck trained daily in the Indonesian martial arts technique, pencak silat, which is also known as pentjak silat). Did you, as co-star Anna Kendrick has publicly stated, “geek out” on the stuntwork?

“I guess we geeked out on it. It was fun. It was a lot of fun!”

Was your Batman training useful?

“It was helpful. I know Gavin was really concerned that the action be real and good and he has done it really well, in Warrior for example. So training was as much a part of this as it was for the Batman movie. In fact, even more so because it is harder to hire a stuntman to do your stunts when you’re not wearing a mask. So I had to really be on top of my game and work with some really great professionals.”

Given the flashback scenes, which show your autistic character undergoing brutal martial arts training as a child, what does it make you think about in your own life as a father?

“That’s what I thought was the most heartbreaking thing about the story and it was definitely moving to me. As a parent, I face dilemmas, as we all do, every day. What’s the right way to raise children? What is the right thing to teach them? We all make mistakes, for sure, but we kind of try our best.”

What is the best-case scenario for The Accountant?

“Our hope is that the people in that community, on the spectrum of autism, like the movie and like that it is a ‘superhero” story about them. This is what I got from the people that I met with. That’s what they wanted to see and what they were excited about. So I hope that’s what we delivered!”

FIVE FILMS THAT MADE AFFLECK A STAR

As Ben Affleck knows only too well, every actor’s career waxes and wanes, especially when bad choices are made. So every bona fide celebrity needs a combination of star-making movies and career-reviving titles that follow the inevitable flops. Here are five past movies that helped make Affleck a Hollywood star — or raised him from the scrapheap after things went terribly wrong:

• Chasing Amy (1997):

Maverick filmmaker Kevin Smith found in Affleck his handsome foil, a leading man who pursues an impossible, bittersweet romance with a lesbian.

• Good Will Hunting (1997):

While Affleck loves teasing his boyhood buddy Matt Damon, the two worked brilliantly in tandem on this famous drama for director Gus Van Sant. Together, they wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay. Then they shone on-screen with Damon in the title role as an unrecognized genius and Robin Williams as the muse.

• Armageddon (1998):

Finding that it is better to go big than go home, Affleck sold out his inner artiste and joined Bruce Willis in Michael Bay’s sci-fi blockbuster. Despite lousy reviews, it became the year’s worldwide box office champ— and none of the movie’s idiocies were Affleck’s fault, so a hit only helped him.

• Hollywoodland (2006):

The early 2000s were tough on Affleck: Daredevil, Gigli, Paycheck... Yikes! But playing the tragic, real-life actor George Reeves during Reeves’ turn as the 1950s TV Superman revived interest in Affeck as a quality actor.

• The Town (2010):

Affleck debuted as director with the terrific Gone Baby Gone, starring his brother Casey Affleck. Then he co-starred in this brilliant Boston crime thriller, which he also co-wrote and directed. His “mature” career as both filmmaker and actor was suddenly set, leading to strong performances in his own Argo, David Fincher’s Gone Girl and now Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant.

Twitter: @Bruce_Kirkland

BKirkland@postmedia.com