Detroit Revs Batman's Motor

Promoting his new movie “Gone Girl,” Ben Affleck took some time to talk about his native Detroit, where he’s filming the Warner Bros. “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” movie. (Screenshot: WJBK video)

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The Motor City’s resurgence is revving the Caped Crusader’s engine.

Well, not the Caped Crusader, exactly, but Ben Affleck, the actor who plays him in the upcoming “Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice” movie that has had metro Detroit residents tripping over stars all summer.

And Affleck is a native Detroiter, so it’s almost the same, right?

No matter. Affleck’s endorsement comes at an important time for the Motor City as it emerges from the cloud of the worst municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Affleck’s heart has been both lifted by the spirit of people “working and plugging away” and burdened at the sight of block after block of abandoned homes, according to a Gannett Michigan story on the Lansing State Journal. He and his celebrity wife, Jennifer Garner, along with their young son, Samuel, have been living in the Detroit metro for the past several months during the filming of the Warner Bros. superhero blockbuster.

“There’s a great spirit of comeback,” he said in an interview with WJBK, Channel 2. “People put down Detroit, and there are places that are really, like, tough, but I’ve never been in the city that’s had that ‘we’re going to come back, we’re in the mood’ vibe.”

Of the urban decay, he said: “I was just shocked that that even could be permitted to happen in the United States of America, that we weren’t doing more collectively to improve this, that we were allowing part of our country to languish in this way.”

Affleck is so supportive of his hometown’s comeback and said that it made such “a big impression on me” that he traded in his foreign cars for Ford and General Motors models.

“I know there are Japanese cars built in Kentucky now, and the world’s a complicated place and so on,” he said. “It felt right. It felt right to contribute to the economic well-being of this area.”

After touring automotive plants, he said he was “really kind of moved by how American industry is actually employing American workers here in Michigan, that it’s really happening.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” the actor said.

Related:

• Riddle Me This, Batman: Did Thieves Steal Batmobile?
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• ‘Batman v. Superman’ Star Sightings: Ben and Jen Crash Detroit Kid City
• Celebrity Couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Celebrate Anniversary in Royal Oak
• Pictures of Batman and Superman? It’s Not Stalking!

Affleck was happy to talk about his favorable impressions of Detroit, but the plot of movie remains a carefully guarded secret. Its release date is March 25, 2016.

But he told ABC’s “Live with Kelly and Michael” viewers Tuesday morning that the batsuit – holy smokes, are you ready for this? – cost about $100,000, and that he’s had to squeeze in more workout sessions so he’ll look marvelous in the physique-hugging costume.

The Zack Snyder-directed film also stars Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane.