Ben Affleck has sympathy for Britney Spears over the way in which she was targeted by paparazzi at the difficult moments in her life.
During the height of the singer's fame in the 2000s, the actor noted that he "really had a lot of empathy" for Spears.
"A long time ago, years and years ago, I really had a lot of empathy for Britney Spears," Affleck said on a recent episode of the This Past Weekend with Theo Von podcast. "Because I remember it seemed like... these people are following her around in a time where she may or may not have been having difficulty".
Ben Affleck who is currently promoting his latest movie, The Accountant 2, could only speculate as to when Britney Spears experienced when paparazzi began to follow her.
Following her mental breakdown in 2008, Britney Spears was placed under an involuntary conservatorship until its termination in 2021.
In his interview, Ben Affleck said that he believes constant attention from photographers did play a role in Spears' difficulties which began in 2007, a time which saw her shave her head.
"I don't know because I don't know her," he said. "But I do know that the cycle of having people harangue you and yell at you and hassle you and follow you. It seemed like that itself was kind of whipping up the whole thing into a tizzy. That's the first time I thought this is kind of a weird, unintentional - I think culturally - but kind of collective cruelty where what's taken out of the image that you see are the people around waving the stick at the tiger or poking on it".
Elsewhere, Ben Affleck also insisted that any photos of celebrities appearing irritated are the result of photographers "poking" fun at them.
"All you see is the growling animal," he stated. "But like a part of that is because somebody is coming around hitting on it to make it get active".
