‘Gigli’ Director Martin Brest Admits Film Was ‘a Bloody Mess That Deserved its Excoriation’

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez may have found their way back to each other, but they’ll never live down the embarrassment of Gigli, the film that started the pair dating. In 2003, the newly-minted couple starred in the crime flick alongside Justin Bartha, Al Pacino, and Christopher Walken—and it’s since become known as one of the worst films ever made. Its director, Martin Brest, apparently agrees.

In a new interview with Variety, Brest said he won’t even called Gigli by its name.

“Of all the movies that I’ve worked on, I know them inside and out,” Brest said. “I don’t even know what that movie looks like, frankly, because of the manner in which it took shape. Even the name… I refer to it as ‘the G movie.’ Probably the less said about it the better.”

Brest goes on to explain that the film “originally started very differently.” “The themes of the movie were radically different,” he explained. “The plot was different. The purpose of the movie was different. But I can’t escape blame. [But] it’s so weird — I literally don’t remember the movie that was released, because I wasn’t underneath it in the way I was under the hood of all my other movies. So it’s really a bloody mess that deserved its excoriation.”

When asked what happened that made the film change so much, Brest confirmed that “extensive” disagreements with himself and the studio caused the production to shut down for eight months.

“In the end I was left with two choices: quit or be complicit in the mangling of the movie,” he said. “To my eternal regret I didn’t quit, so I bear responsibility for a ghastly cadaver of a movie. Once key scenes were cut it became like a joke with its punchline removed, endless contortions could never create the illusion that what remained was intended. Extensive reshooting and re-editing turned characters, scenes, story and tone upside down in the futile attempt to make the increasing mess resemble a movie.”

In 2003, Rolling Stone‘s critic Peter Travers eviscerated Gigli in his review. “The stars display zip chemistry, but seem to find themselves adorable,” Travers wrote. “They’re so taken with each other they don’t need an audience. Good thing, because they’re not going to get one, not with this swill.”

Affleck and Lopez, for their part, seem to have moved on. Earlier this week, Lopez teased a new song about the couple’s Sin City nuptials, aptly titled “Midnight Trip to Vegas,” for their one-year wedding anniversary. Midnight Trip to Vegas” will appear on Lopez’s upcoming album, This Is Me… Now, which is expected to arrive this year, though a release date hasn’t been announced yet. 

Last year, Affleck told Entertainment Weekly that Gigli “engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me,” but that he’s ultimately grateful for the experience.

“There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt,” the actor said. “But if the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, ‘I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,’ which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life… And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”