Ben Affleck proud of enduring popularity of 'The Accountant'

NEW YORK, April 25 (UPI) -- Ben Affleck says he is surprised his thriller The Accountant seems to have only grown in popularity since its release in 2016.

"I was really proud of it, but it had a longer life in terms of the real-life feedback that I get from people, what movies they would mention when they come up to me, and, so, I definitely was aware, like, 'Oh, wow, that movie seems to still be being watched,'" Affleck, 52, told reporters in a recent virtual press conference.

"It's also a function of the fact that streaming really started to take off after this movie, so people had the opportunity to pick what movie they're going to watch, that sort of thing."

Written by Bill Dubuque, directed by Gavin O'Connor and opening Friday, sequel The Accountant 2 again follows Affleck's character Christian Wolff, an autistic forensic accountant who works for criminal organizations and then informs on them to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Jon Bernthal plays his brother Braxton, who runs a security firm for high-end clients, J.K. Simmons plays Ray, Christian's contact at the Treasury Department, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson plays Marybeth, the Treasury agent tasked with figuring out exactly who Christian is.

"I love this character. I really enjoyed playing it," Affleck said.

"Gavin and I both very much were drawn to the idea of bringing Jon back and expanding on that because we both really were like, 'This guy's fabulous,' and we love it, and we, I think, both felt like there was a lot more to do," he added. "Bill and Gavin spent a lot of time in the intervening years developing and putting it together in a -- quite typical of Gavin -- meticulous, patient, detail-oriented, character-driven way."

No one involved wanted to do the exact same thing they did the first time out just because it turned out to be a successful formula.

"Both were quite mindful of not wanting to repeat it, not wanting to just [say]: 'Hey, they like the first one. Let's just figure something out and do another one.' So, everything about it was appealing to me," Affleck said of O'Connor and Dubuque.

O'Connor, 61, added: "There was certain DNA that was important to preserve and then, after that, it was a lot of left turns and just trying to refill the tank in a very different way."

Addai-Robinson, 40, described Marybeth as the "entry point" for the audience into this world.

"She's sort of observing and seeing all these things unfold around her and reacting in kind and myself, as an actor, same thing," she said.

"I think back to working on the first movie. I was nervous. I was kind of out of my depth in a way, just trying to kind of present as if I wasn't, which I think, for Marybeth, it was a similar type of situation," the actress added.

"Here we are eight years later, when we started on the sequel, and Marybeth has evolved, grown. She's in this sort of elevated position within the Treasury Department and, for myself as a person and an actor, I felt like I had also grown."

Affleck said he sees Marybeth as the real protagonist of the movie and that is fine with him.

"She's the lead in the movie," he emphasized.

"We get to play character parts," Affleck added, referring to himself and Bernthal as "an odd couple" in what is tantamount to a "two-hander" play.

"There are a whole bunch of expectations and stuff that go with being the lead in the movie because, as Cynthia says, the audience is really projecting themselves onto you," he said.

"So, we're like a dual-aggravant, in some ways to her, and if you look at the math of the story, it's about her being brought into this, seeing this person be killed, trying to find out what it was and what she has to go through to get there and the resolution of her story, and that's something that I find very artful and interesting."

Bernthal, 48, said he was drawn to the project largely because O'Connor is a close friend and Dubuque's writing is "unbelievably strong."

"Gavin and I, we're very close," he added. "You work with Gavin, he's always going to whittle it down and try to get to the truth of the character and there's no stone left unturned," Bernthal noted. "It was a real thrill for me to get back."

He said he felt the film-making team also set Affleck up to excel once again as the idiosyncratic Christian.

"He's unbelievably funny and, it sounds corny, [but] he's just mastered this character," Bernthal went on. "There's just so many little moments of truth that are going on that you love, but can also drive you crazy from the right point of view and I feel like I was really let off the leash to have a real opinion about that."

O'Connor said the key to creating a worthy sequel to a beloved original was finding a different journey that would force Christian, Braxton and Marybeth to organically intersect.

"We knew the key in the ignition was to kill Ray because I wanted it to be personal for both of these guys," the director said, referring to Braxton and Christian, whom he admitted are "slightly bonkers." "I just wanted to make a movie that was fun and entertaining."

And, if people walk out of theaters saying, "That was a great time at the movies," O'Connor said he feels his mission has been accomplished.