Ben Affleck found himself back in meme territory on Friday night while leaving one of his children’s school plays.
The 53-year-old Oscar winner, who shares Violet, 19, Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13, with ex Jennifer Garner, was spotted walking alone to his car, wearing a casual jacket and relaxed ensemble, his face carrying a familiar forlorn expression.
The quiet moment seemed to signal he was ready for the evening to wrap up.
For fans, it was a nostalgic callback to Affleck’s meme heyday — more than eight years after the legendary ‘sad Affleck’ photo went viral.
The now-iconic snapshot, taken in London in 2016, showed the actor in a blue sweater and jeans, cigarette in hand, looking exhausted and contemplative.
Once shared online, the image spread like wildfire across Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Reddit, inspiring countless captions capturing the essence of quiet defeat — and cementing Affleck’s place in meme history.
Ben Affleck found himself back in meme territory on Friday night while leaving one of his children’s school plays
The 53-year-old Oscar winner, who shares Violet, 19, Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13, with ex Jennifer Garner , was spotted walking alone to his car, wearing a casual jacket and relaxed ensemble, his face carrying a familiar forlorn expression
Back in 2016, during a press junket for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Affleck was caught on camera with a visibly glum expression while co-star Henry Cavill answered a question.
The clip went viral almost instantly, inspiring a parody from YouTuber Sabconth that layered the video with negative review headlines and Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.
While he’s been caught in plenty of serious or brooding moments since, Affleck has maintained a sense of humor about it all.
In a 2022 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he admitted the memes didn’t bother him — until his kids got old enough to notice.
‘I got to a place where [the public perception] was so different from who I am that I just stopped reading and stopped caring.’
He continued, ‘But then, as my kids got older and started seeing the internet themselves, that’s the difficult part. Even the “Sad Affleck” meme – that was funny to me. I mean, there’s nobody who hasn’t felt that way at a junket.’
‘But then my kids see it and I think, “Oh, are they going to think their dad is fundamentally sad or they have to worry about me?” That’s really tough.’
Affleck and Garner separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce three years later.
The former power couple have continued to have a good relationship as they co-parent their three children together; pictured 2007
Affleck and Garner separated in 2015 and finalized their divorce three years later
Despite their split, the duo have maintained a positive co-parenting relationship for their children.
Affleck has previously commented on raising his children with the 13 Going On 30 actress during an interview with GQ in March.
‘I’m really lucky that I have a really good co-parent and partner in Jennifer Garner, the kids’ mom, who’s wonderful and great and we work together well,’ he told the outlet at the time.
The Good Will Hunting actor also discussed how both he and Jennifer have navigated through fame and stayed honest with their kids.
‘We used to have a thing, my ex-wife and I, when they would see something on a supermarket stand,’ Ben recalled.
‘We would say, well, “You know this isn’t always true because if it were, you would have 15 brothers or sisters or whatever the number of stories is where they said that your mom was pregnant.”‘
Affleck added, ‘I know what’s going on in my life. And also, really more importantly, my kids know.’
Ben also famously dated Jennifer Lopez from 2002 to 2004, reignited their romance in 2021, tied the knot in 2022, and ultimately split in 2024.
