Actor Ben Affleck, who is filming a Batman movie in Detroit, appeared last week on "Real Time With Bill Maher, and told the nation of his affection for Detroit, but also talked about his initial shock when seeing the devastation of the city.
First the upside.
"Detroit is an amazing city," he said.
"The truth is, like, I visited a bunch of auto plants and I've spent a lot of time in the city and there is a tremendous, like, comeback, can-do spirit that has actually been really really inspiring to me."
Now, the downside:
"Detroit is like a place where we talk about U.S. nation building. I look around, blocks and blocks. There's one house that 's being lived in. That's our pitch? We'll come build your nation, look what we did for Detroit. We have a whole American city virtually lying fallow in sections, an industrial sector that's fallen nearly completely apart. So parts of it's devastating and I was shocked."
Maher asked him why the movie was being filmed in Detroit.
Affleck told him he'd have to talk to the people making the movie, but he went on to explain that Michigan was providing film incentives and was working to build an infrastructure for the movie industry.
Maher made a crack about the Batman needing a post-Apocalyptic setting.
And then Maher added:
"I love Detroit."
At one point when a heckler responded to Affleck saying how wonderful Detroit was, he turned to the audience and said:
Where the "fuck was" that coming from.
