Ben Affleck says he had “empathy” for Britney Spears during her difficult time; dodges question about alleged makeout session with the singer

Actor Ben Affleck recently appeared on the This Past Weekend With Theo Von podcast to discuss his career and his upcoming action thriller film, The Accountant 2.

On the April 24 episode, the actor discussed pop star Britney Spears and the harassment she faced from the paparazzi in the 2000s. While Affleck clarified that he did not associate with Britney Spears during that time, he felt empathy for her.

"A long time ago, years and years ago, I really had a lot of empathy for Britney Spears. Because I remember it seemed like - I mean it's not somebody I knew, or hung out with but just like everybody else, you see all this sh*t that comes through," the actor said.

Affleck was seemingly referring to Spears' public meltdown in 2007, when she shaved her head. He then compared her situation to that of a tiger that people poke. He called out the media and the audience, saying they all supposedly participated in a "collective cruelty" by harassing the singer.

"I thought this is kind of a weird, unintentional — I think culturally — but kind of collective cruelty where what's taken out of the image that you see are the people around waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it, And all you see is the growling animal or whatever it is, but like a part of that is because somebody is coming around hitting on it to make it get active," Affleck stated.

Last year, Britney Spears claimed she had allegedly made out with Ben Affleck in 1999

According to the E! News report dated February 8, 2024, Britney Spears uploaded a throwback picture from 1999 on February 7, 2024. She stood between actors Diane Warren and Ben Affleck in the now-deleted Instagram post. In the caption, the singer claimed that she allegedly made out with Affleck that night.

"Cool pic of me and Ben Affleck and Diane Warren years ago!!! He's such an amazing actor. Did I fail to mention I made out with Ben that night... I honestly forgot... damn that's crazy!!! Wish I could tell you guys the story that happened before that!!! Oh dear, I'm just being a gossip girl. Psss I actually forgot," the singer wrote in the caption.

The actor, however, never commented on the alleged makeout session. On February 9, 2024, paparazzi approached Affleck on a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood in Los Angeles. When asked about the pop star's Instagram post, he allegedly kept quiet and refused to address it.

Ben Affleck addressed the viral paparazzi pictures of him looking stressed out

On the April 24 episode of the This Past Weekend With Theo Von podcast, the 52-year-old actor stated that the viral pictures of him looking irritated were taken when he didn't want to be photographed.

"It's this selective experience of take a photo of somebody everytime they're feeling irritated, they're gonna look irritated... I think there's this sense that like, if you take someone's picture all the time, they must want you to be seen. Which is not the case at all for me," Affleck said.

Ben Affleck's action thriller film The Accountant 2 was released in theatres on April 25, 2025.