Reports revealed earlier this week that when Ben Affleck appeared last year on Henry Louis Gates’s Find Your Roots for PBS, the newest Batman actor tried to mask the fact that he’s a descendent of slave owners. Affleck weighed in on the allegations Tuesday on his Facebook page, writing that he was “embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.†While he lobbied to have those particular ancestors excluded from the show, now he says he’s happy his story is contributing to our discussion of the “terrible legacy of slavery.†Basically, he had the Anderson Cooper/Ken Burns reaction he probably should have had initially.
Here’s Affleck’s full response-slash-kind-of-sorry-not-sorry-excuse-filled explanatory apology:
After an exhaustive search of my ancestry for “Finding Your Roots,†it was discovered that one of my distant relatives was an owner of slaves.
I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.
Skip decided what went into the show. I lobbied him the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use. This is the collaborative creative process. Skip agreed with me on the slave owner but made other choices I disagreed with. In the end, it’s his show and I knew that going in. I’m proud to be his friend and proud to have participated.
It’s important to remember that this isn’t a news program. Finding Your Roots is a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable. The assumption is that they will never be dishonest but they will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family.
I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story. We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery. It is an examination well worth continuing. I am glad that my story, however indirectly, will contribute to that discussion. While I don’t like that the guy is an ancestor, I am happy that aspect of our country’s history is being talked about.
Ben Affleck
Variety reports that PBS has launched an internal review of the matter, because, as you’ve probably pieced together by now, the information about Affleck’s ancestors never aired. Needless to say, the Sony hack emails continue to be Hollywood’s most annoying cold sore that just will not go away.