Ben Affleck broke his silence over lobbying a PBS show, “Finding Your Roots,” to omit details that his ancestors owned slaves.
“I didn’t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed,” the star posted Tuesday via Facebook. “The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth.”
He said he “lobbied” show host Henry Louis Gates Jr. to keep out the information “the same way I lobby directors about what takes of mine I think they should use. This is the collaborative creative process . . . It’s important to remember that this isn’t a news program” but rather “a show where you voluntarily provide a great deal of information about your family, making you quite vulnerable.”
He added, “I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story.”
Meanwhile, PBS and WNET launched an investigation after hacked Sony e-mails uncovered the controversy.
Gates had e-mailed Sony chief Michael Lynton for advice, admitting, “To do this would be a violation of PBS rules, actually, even for Batman.”
Read Ben Affleck’s full Facebook statement: