Ben Affleck is used to action-heavy roles, but he says the toughest challenge he faced while making The Accountant 2 wasn’t a fight sequence or a tactical shootout, it was learning to line dance. Speaking onstage after the film’s world premiere at SXSW in Austin, Affleck told the audience that the “months and months” he spent training for a dance scene felt like stunt work to him, then cracked, “Tom Cruise has nothing on me,” clarifying it was strictly “in terms of line dancing.”
The comment drew laughs because it flips Hollywood’s usual stunt hierarchy on its head: Cruise is famous for pushing physical limits, while Affleck framed choreography as his personal Everest. Deadline’s SXSW coverage also notes Affleck described the line-dancing prep as the real grind, emphasizing how much rehearsal went into making the moment work onscreen.
The dance sequence arrives as part of a lighter character beat for Christian Wolff (Affleck), the highly skilled, socially awkward forensic accountant he introduced in the 2016 film. As described in reports from the premiere, Wolff ends up in a bar setting where he quietly studies the repeated movements of the dancers, then joins in and nails the routine, a comedic, crowd-pleasing twist that plays to the character’s pattern-recognition strengths.
The Accountant 2 reunites Affleck with director Gavin O’Connor and brings back Jon Bernthal as Christian’s estranged brother Brax, alongside returning cast members including Cynthia Addai-Robinson and J.K. Simmons. The sequel is scheduled for theatrical release on April 25, 2025.
Affleck’s “stunt” joke may be light, but it also signals what audiences can expect from the sequel’s tone: still intense, but with more room for character-driven humor and at least one moment where the film’s most unlikely flex is a perfectly timed line dance.
