Ben Affleck has a type, apparently, and it’s got nothing to do with dating. The guy is drawn to women who bake. For a film crew. Unprompted. And on a recent episode of Kerry Washington’s podcast, he basically outed both his ex-wife and his current costar as the same person wearing two different faces.

Okay, So What Did He Actually Say?

Affleck, 54, sat down with Washington on her “Street You Grew Up On” podcast and dropped this gem while talking about their time filming “Animals” together. “You and Jen Garner, by the way, talk about twin spirits,” he told her. “You’re the two, the only people I know who regularly bake for the crew.” Not “sometimes.” Not “once in a while when they’re feeling generous.” Regularly. These two apparently show up to set with trays of baked goods like it’s a competitive sport nobody else signed up for.

And honestly? I love this detail. Not gonna lie, it’s a weirdly specific thing to notice about two different women you’ve worked with years apart, which tells me it genuinely stuck with him. Affleck didn’t stop there either. He went on to say that Garner and Washington’s kindness basically makes everyone else on set look bad by comparison, himself included. “It’s like this is the category of people who make you feel like an ass no matter how hard you try,” he said. “Because Kerry and Jen are always doing you one step better with everybody else.”

The Self-Deprecation Is Doing a Lot of Work Here

What’s interesting here is how Affleck frames this. He’s not just complimenting Garner and Washington, he’s using himself as the punching bag. The guy who can’t quite match the baking energy, no matter how hard he tries. It’s a classic bit, the self-aware celebrity joke that makes the compliment land softer and funnier at the same time. And look, I get why he does it. Straight-up gushing about your ex-wife on a podcast with your current costar would feel a little strange. Wrapping it in a joke about his own inadequacy as a crew-pleaser? Much smoother move.

But Why Does This Comparison Even Matter?

Here’s the thing. Garner and Affleck split back in 2015 after ten years of marriage, and since then they’ve basically become the gold standard for how exes with kids are supposed to coparent. We’re talking about two people who’ve been photographed grabbing coffee together, who show up to their kids’ school events as a unit, who’ve never (publicly, at least) thrown shade at each other in interviews. That’s rare in Hollywood. That’s rare anywhere, honestly. Garner's capacity for staying warm with former partners isn't limited to Affleck either, as seen in her rare reunion with ex Michael Vartan twenty-five years after they dated.

So when Affleck casually compares his current costar to his ex-wife, in a flattering way, on a public podcast, it’s not nothing. It shows he still holds Garner in genuinely high regard, years after the divorce. There’s no bitterness in that comment. No weird undertone. Just a guy pointing out that two women he respects happen to share this oddly specific, oddly wholesome quality.

“It’s like this is the category of people who make you feel like an ass no matter how hard you try.”

The Baking Thing Is Actually Kind of Perfect

I keep coming back to the baking detail because it’s such a small, human thing to highlight. Celebrities get asked about their costars constantly, and most answers are generic: “Oh, she’s so talented,” “We had great chemistry,” blah blah blah. You’ve heard it a thousand times. But Affleck didn’t go generic. He went specific. Baked goods. For the crew. Regularly. That’s the kind of detail that only sticks if it actually happened, repeatedly, in a way that made an impression.

And it says something about both women, honestly. Movie sets are grueling. Long hours, early calls, crews that work harder than almost anyone realizes. The actors who think to bring treats for the people hauling cables and adjusting lights? Those are the ones crew members talk about for years afterward. It’s a small gesture that costs very little but means a lot, and apparently Garner and Washington both figured that out independently, in completely different projects, years apart.

A Quick Reminder of the Garner-Affleck Timeline

For anyone who needs the refresher: Affleck and Garner tied the knot in 2005 and split in 2015, sharing three kids together, Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel. The divorce was finalized in 2018, and since then they’ve been held up repeatedly as an example of how to actually coparent without the drama. No ugly custody battles playing out in the tabloids. No petty jabs in interviews. Just two people who decided their kids mattered more than their egos, which, if we’re being real, shouldn’t be as impressive as it is, but here we are.

What This Actually Means

Look, this isn’t some massive revelation that changes how we see Ben Affleck. It’s a lighthearted podcast moment, a funny little compliment wrapped in self-deprecating humor. But it’s also a nice reminder that exes can speak well of each other without it being weird or forced or performative. Affleck wasn’t trying to score points or send a message to anyone. He just noticed something genuinely sweet about two women in his life and said it out loud, on the record, without overthinking it.

Maybe that’s the real takeaway here. Not the baking, not the “twin spirits” line, but the fact that a decade after his divorce, Affleck can still talk about Garner with warmth and respect, in the same breath as a current costar he clearly admires. In a town where exes often can’t be in the same room, that’s worth noticing. Whether Washington starts bringing even more baked goods to set now that there’s a reputation to live up to? That remains to be seen.