Social media regularly wakes up when videos start circulating of actor Ben Affleck speaking Spanish. For many, they don’t know that the actor is fluent in the language and regularly speaks it in interviews. The revelation also came as a surprise to Brazilian actress Alice Braga (“Queen of the South”), who stars alongside Affleck in Robert Rodriguez’s new feature film, “Hypnotic.”
“Ben speaks Spanish really well, like, incredibly well,” Braga told TheWrap. “I never knew that! I was like, ‘Do you speak Spanish?’ “In the film, Braga and Affleck play a couple thrown together when Affleck’s cop character, Roarke, is drawn into a dark world involving a hypnotic suggestion that may be linked to the disappearance of Roarke’s young daughter.
Braga said the revelation that Affleck could speak Spanish came during a quiet moment on set when she and Affleck started talking. “As an actor, you sit and wait for the cameras to be ready or for a light to be on. They’re setting up the focus or they’re moving a car in the way. You always have downtime when you’re talking” , she said.
The actress explained it and Affleck frequently discussed filmmaking and acting and in one specific scene, she stumbled upon a particular word. “I was like, ‘Oh, do you speak Spanish? Great.’ I thought it was going to be a few words,” Braga said. “And he’s [talking] and I’m like, ‘are you still going? He makes a whole conversation really good.
“We started speaking Spanish and he was able to explain the meaning, or the sound or something about that word,” she said. “He helped me crack the word with his understanding of a Latin language. It was a nice connection and very generous of him.
For Braga, working on “Hypnotic” wasn’t just an opportunity to work with Affleck, but also with director Robert Rodriguez. “I’ve always wanted to work with Robert since he was a producer for ‘Predators’,” she said. The role offered the actress a challenge, especially as she plays multiple versions of a character as the film’s hypnotic constructs regularly alter reality. “It’s a story within a story, but it’s the same heartbeat,” Braga said.
“Hypnotic” hits theaters May 12.
