Ben Affleck: Jennifer Garner Wouldn't Let Me Direct Homeland Episode!

USMagazine, Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 5:00pm (PDT)

Ben Affleck is a man of his word.

During his acceptance speech at the Artios Awards in Los Angeles Monday, Oct. 29, the Argo actor/director revealed he felt obligated to pass on the opportunity to direct episodes of Showtime's hit Homeland -- because of an agreement with wife Jennifer Garner.

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"It's true! I was going to do Homeland," he explained, after the show's casting director, Libby Goldstein, jokingly called him (and Garner) out during her remarks. ("She had gotten a film/With some sort of thing/And she wanted him home/Well, she does have the ring!" Goldstein rhymed during her speech).

"I liked the show. I signed on. The guys were ready. I don't want to blame it on 'her,' but my wife and I have an arrangement where when she works, I don't work and when I work, she doesn't work," Affleck shared. "She said, 'I have this movie, it's 10 weeks, it's in Atlanta.' I said, 'Okay, forget it. I'm sure nothing will happen with it anyway.'"

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Affleck was wrong about how Homeland would hold up, though -- and he's more than a little bitter about it.

"Let me tell you something: I hate that f---ing show," he joked of the series, which recently swept the Emmys with awards for Best Drama, Best Actor (Damian Lewis), Actress (Claire Danes) and more. "I've never seen a frame of it and I hate it."

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Though his agreement with Garner, also 40, kept him from getting in on Homeland's ground floor, Affleck wrapped up his speech with some kind words for his significant other.

"I want to thank my wife who is spectacular and who puts up with me and is a doll, who is the reason I didn't do Homeland," he told the crowd. "But she is also the reason why my children [Violet, 6, Seraphina, 3, and Samuel, 8 months] know my name!"

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Ben Affleck: Jennifer Garner Wouldn't Let Me Direct Homeland Episode!