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

‘I had to sort of Bill Clinton it,’ claims the actor, recounting his time on the set of Dazed and Confused

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!!