Ben Affleck Was Held at Knifepoint at 14. His Attacker Later Killed Someone with a Knife

The two-time Oscar winner shared the shocking revelation on Kerry Washington’s ‘Street You Grew Up On’ podcast on Wednesday, Sept. 30

NEED TO KNOW

• On the Sept. 30 episode of Kerry Washington’s Street You Grew Up On, Ben Affleck said recognizing older boys from baseball helped him escape being robbed
• He also shared his experience growing up in a working-class neighborhood where violence felt familiar
• “I was scared,” Affleck admitted

Long before Ben Affleck was fighting crime in Gotham City, he narrowly escaped an attack by a neighborhood kid who later killed someone.

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the Justice League alum, 54, appeared as the first guest on Season 5 of Kerry Washington’s podcast, Street You Grew Up On, where he shared a shocking story of how being recognized allowed him to go free.

Affleck recalled growing up on Cottage Street in a “working class” area of Cambridge, Mass., with “poor people sort of like, feeling like they were fighting it out,” before Washington, 49, asked him if he was ever robbed as a kid.

“Well, yeah,” he told his Animals costar. 

“In fact, I remember I was walking home from high school, I was 14 maybe, and I saw these two kids in like literal hoods on the other side of the street. And, you know, it’s kind of one of those things where you’re like, ‘All right,’ ” he said, noting that he knew the situation was about to take a turn. 

Affleck said that he watched the two kids cross the street and he initially considered running away, but tried to play it cool instead.

“They pass me, grab me, take a knife out, [and say] ‘Give me your money,’” the Gone Girl actor said.

“I was scared,” Affleck admitted. “But then out of the corner of my eye, I realized who they were. I recognized them from playing baseball and they were like older boys that I knew and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, what’s up?’ And so I guess I was like, I guess I’m off the hook.”

After that run-in, though, the two-time Oscar winner said another victim wasn’t so lucky.

“And actually, that kid who robbed me ended up, I don’t know three or four years later, killing somebody with a knife and going to prison for 20 years,” Affleck told Washington. “So there was that, you know what I mean? And you were kind of aware of it.”

Affleck, who was around 12 years old when he appeared in the PBS series The Voyage of the Mimi, joked that when he turned 13, he decided he would be “more of a serious actor.”

He would go on to find a friend in fellow actor Matt Damon during their childhood.

Earlier in the conversation, he thanked his “great drama teacher named Jerry Speca” for pushing him and Damon, 55, to pursue their passions.

“Matt and I would never have written [Good Will Hunting] or thought we could write or were writers if we had not been in that class,” Affleck added of his training with Speca.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Washington’s Street You Grew Up On is a weekly, full-length audio and video podcast in partnership with Daylight. Upcoming guests include Dwayne Johnson, Demi Lovato, Colin Kaepernick, Chelsea Handler and more.

Affleck and Washington’s latest film, Animals, hits theaters on Oct. 9, the same day it will be available to stream on Netflix.

Read the full article here