Ben Affleck recalls ‘dissociative panic attack’ after smoking cannabis at 15 years old

Photograph: Getty Images for SiriusXM

Ben Affleck has recalled suffering a “dissociative panic attack” after smoking cannabis when he was 15 years old.

The Justice League actor told the story in an interview for the new book Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.

According toVanity Fair, Affleck said: “I had a dissociative panic attack. So I only smoked weed if everyone else was smoking and I had to sort of Bill Clinton it and fake it. I didn’t really like marijuana.”

Affleck, who is now in recovery for an alcohol abuse problem, added: “I also wasn’t a very heavy drinker then... that was a whole different time.”

Affleck starred in Dazed and Confused, a 1993 coming-of-age comedy, alongside Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey and Adam Goldberg.

Affleck as seen in Dazed and Confused in 1993 (© 1993 Universal City Studios, )

In the new book, he reveals that he declined to drink alcohol or take drugs with his co-workers during production on the film. 

“I was a little nervous, like, ‘should we be drinking before we’re working tomorrow?’ Some people were actually drinking and stoned at work,” he said.

Dazed and Confused told the story of a group of high school students in Austin, Texas in the mid-Seventies.

Linklater would later release a spiritual sequel to the film in 2016, titled Everybody Wants Some!!