Alice Braga Didn’t Know Ben Affleck Spoke Spanish Until Filming ‘Hypnotic’ With Him

Social media routinely perks up when videos start circulating of actor Ben Affleck speaking Spanish. For many, they don’t know that the actor is fluent in the language and regularly speaks it in interviews. This revelation was also a surprise for Brazilian actress Alice Braga (“Queen of the South”), who stars opposite Affleck in the new Robert Rodriguez feature, “Hypnotic.”

“Ben speaks super good Spanish, like, impressively good,” Braga told TheWrap. “I never knew that! I was like, ‘You speak Spanish?'” In the film, Braga and Affleck play a couple thrown together when Affleck’s cop character, Roarke, is drawn into a shadowy world involving hypnotic suggestion that might connect to the disappearance of Roarke’s young daughter.

Braga said the revelation that Affleck could speak Spanish came during a quiet moment on set when her and Affleck got to talking. “As an actor you sit and wait for cameras to be ready, or for a light to be pulled up. They’re organizing the focus or they’re moving a car of the way. You’re always having downtime when you’re talking,” she said.

The actress explained her and Affleck frequently discussed filmmaking and acting and in one specific scene she was stumbling over a particular word. “I was like, ‘Oh, you speak Spanish? Great.’ I thought it was going to be a couple of words,” Braga said. “And he’s [talking] and I’m like, ‘you’re still going? He’s making a whole conversation really good.”

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“We started talking Spanish and he was able to explain the meaning, or the sound or something about that word,” she said. “He helped me break through the word because of his understanding of a Latin language. It was a nice connection and very generous of him.”

For Braga, working on “Hypnotic” wasn’t just an opportunity to work with Affleck, but director Robert Rodriguez as well. “I’ve always wanted to work with Robert since he was a producer for ‘Predators,'” she said. The role offered the actress a challenge, especially since she’s playing multiple versions of a character as the hypnotic constructs within the movie regularly alter reality. “It’s a story within a story, but it’s the same heartbeat,” said Braga.

“Hypnotic” is in theaters May 12th.

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