Steven Spielberg Has Never Made a Movie With Ben Affleck For a Surprising Reason: ‘Cold As Hell’

Steven Spielberg and Ben Affleck feuded for years, according to Mike Binder.

The comedian, who wrote and directed 2006’s Man About Town, revealed on a recent podcast appearance that the famed director, 79, was originally set to release the film through his DreamWorks Pictures — until the Good Will Hunting star, 53, came on board in the lead role.

“I call Steven, Steven says, ‘No. Can’t do it with him. We just bombed with a movie with him, he’s got that whole J. Lo thing going on now, and I have other problems with him,'” Binder, 67, claimed on Stephen Baldwin’s One Bad Movie podcast in November.

Those other problems? The Spielbergs vacationed with Affleck when he was dating the director’s goddaughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, from 1997 to 2000.

“Steven says…’My son was a little boy, was playing in the pool, and he got out of the pool, and Ben came in fully dressed, and my son pushed Ben into the pool.  And Ben got really mad at him, and he came out of the pool and picked him up and threw him back into the pool and made my son cry,’” Binder recalled. (Spielberg shares son Max, 40, with ex-wife Amy Irving, and sons Theo, 37, and Sawyer, 33, with wife Kate Capshaw.)

“He says, ‘I just don’t like to work with him. Plus his last two movies bombed. Find somebody else. Anyone but him. He’s cold as hell,’” the Minority Report actor continued.

When he broke the news to the Accountant star’s agent, “Ben calls me up, he says, ‘Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that what happened? Is that why I’m not on your movie?!’”

Binder ended up insisting on hiring Affleck, and DreamWorks dropped the project. “It’s not a good movie,” he added, but insisted the actor is “good” in it.

“So Ben’s career goes so cold and then it…takes off. He wins the Oscar for Argo. He beats Spielberg,” added Binder of the 2013 ceremony in which Affleck’s movie won Best Picture over Spielberg’s Lincoln. “He’s at the Academy Awards and they’re hugging. I text him, ‘Ben, tonight you could throw Spielberg’s whole family in the pool and get away with it.’ ”

“That was my one moment of dealing with those super hotshots and they were like, great guys, but at the same time, a**holes,” he concluded. “Steven Spielberg is a genius and a great guy but he can be an a**hole. And Ben Affleck is a great guy and he could be a bigger a**hole. By the same token, both of them can go, ‘Yeah I can be an a**hole.’ ”