In his new action thriller The Accountant, Ben Affleck tackles a role unlike anything he has ever done before. "It's definitely the most complicated and interesting character that I've played," he says of the maths savant Christian Wolff, who becomes entangled with the mob and US officials.

Ben Affleck in The AccountantBen Affleck in The Accountant

The role required quite a lot of research. "I went around and spent time with people who were at various places on the autism spectrum," Affleck says. "I observed behaviour and talked to them and engaged with them in everything from what their daily life is like to what type of movie they'd like to see about someone with autism. There were a lot of different responses, but really the value was in grounding the guy and making him like real people I had met, rather than just an imagined version of what it might be."

This meant that he couldn't simplify anything. "The more complicated the better," he says, "because that meant it was more real. The people that we met and talked to all had very complicated situations and lives. There was an amazing spectrum of special gifts that we found. So, it should feel complicated. What we wanted to do was be respectful and be accurate, and to tell a truthful story."

When asked if Christian has anything in common with his other alter-ego, Batman, Affleck laughs and says that they have the same chin. But he does see a connection. "Our hope is that people in that community, who are on the spectrum of autism, like the movie and like that it's a superhero story about them," he says. 

He also says that the action in this movie was even more demanding than Batman's, because director Gavin O'Connor (Warrior) wanted it to feel realistic. "Training was as much a part of this as it was for the Batman movie," Affleck says. "In fact, even more so with this, because it's a lot harder for the stuntman to do your stunt when you're not wearing a mask! So I had to really be on top of my game and work hard with some really great professionals who were very helpful and really good at the stuff, and they educated me about this fighting style [Pentak Silat from Indonesia]. It was a learning experience. I have a lot of respect for the guys who do it for a living."

Watch the trailer for The Accountant: