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Coming out in 2016, ‘The Accountant’ was the very definition of a sleeper hit. Directed by Gavin O’Connor (‘Warrior’), the film starred Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff, an autistic man with a genius for numbers who acts as a financial adviser and forensic accountant for criminal organizations.

Tasked with examining the books for an allegedly legit but corrupt firm, Christian is pursued by Treasury agents Ray King (J.K. Simmons) and Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), while also learning that a hitman on his trail turns out to be his long-estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal).

‘The Accountant’ was a surprise success at the box office, grossing $155 million worldwide off a reasonable $44 million budget, but the movie also had a vibrant afterlife on streaming and home video, which ultimately led to the development of ‘The Accountant 2.’

The sequel brings back O’Connor, Affleck, Bernthal, and Addai-Robinson, with the latter three reuniting to investigate the mysterious death of Ray King. Operating on the fringes of the law and the criminal underworld, the trio find themselves dealing with both a human trafficking ring and a lethal new assassin (Danielle Pineda).

With ‘The Accountant 2’ arriving in theaters on April 25th, members of the cast and crew – including Affleck, Bernthal, Pineda, Addai-Robinson, and O’Connor — participated in a virtual press conference that Moviefone had the opportunity to attend, along with other members of the press,  and crunch the numbers on ‘The Accountant 2.’

Related Article: Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal Return in First Pictures from ‘The Accountant 2’

1) Why Ben Affleck Made A Rare Sequel

With the exception of his two-movie stint (plus cameos) as Batman in the now-defunct DC Snyderverse, and brief appearances as Daredevil in the director’s cut of ‘Elektra’ and his ‘Chasing Amy’ character in Kevin Smith’s ViewAskewniverse, Ben Affleck has never played the same character twice until taking on the role of Christian Wolff.

Ben Affleck: The first one – which was successful and I was really proud of — had a longer life in terms of the real-life feedback that I get from people and what movies they mention when they come up to me. So I definitely was aware, “Oh, wow, that movie seems to still be watched.” I think it’s also a function of the fact that streaming really started to take off after this movie. Also, I love this character. I really enjoyed playing it. Gavin and I both very much were drawn to the idea of bringing Jon back and expanding on that because we both were like, “This guy’s fabulous,” and we both felt like there was a lot more to do. Bill (Dubuque, screenwriter) and Gavin spent a lot of time in the intervening years developing and putting together — in a meticulous, detail-oriented, character-driven way that’s quite typical of Gavin — what it could be, because both were quite mindful of not wanting to repeat [the first one]. So everything about it was appealing to me.

2) Gavin O’Connor Didn’t Want To Make The Same Movie Twice

Director Gavin O’Connor says he was very concerned – as Ben Affleck states above – with not just rehashing the first ‘Accountant.’

Gavin O’Connor: There was certain DNA that was important to preserve, and then after that, it was a lot of left turns and just try to refill the tank in a very different way. I in no way wanted to recycle the same thing that we did in the first film, so it was just a matter of how do we just start recreating the character in a way that is putting him on a different journey, integrating Brax, and bringing Cynthia back. We knew the key in the ignition was to kill Ray because I wanted it to be personal for both [Christian and Marybeth]. Most importantly, I just wanted to make a movie that was fun and entertaining and put people in the seats, where they can walk out of the theater and go, “Man, that was a f**king ball. That was a great time at the movies.” That’s really what we were going for.

3) Jon Bernthal Enjoyed Having A New Dynamic With Ben Affleck

Christian and Braxton spend a lot more time together in ‘The Accountant 2,’ and the film not only delves deeper into their backstory but also plays up both the friction and the humor between the two brothers, which Jon Bernthal cites as a major factor in his return.

Jon Bernthal: It was a real thrill for me to get back, and I think with Ben, it just kind of happened that way. I mean, it’s there, but it was very much supported by Gavin to sort of let moments linger and let it exist naturally and play the moments in between the beats. [Ben is] unbelievably funny and, it sounds corny, but he’s just mastered this character in such a way that there’s just so many little moments of truth that are going on that you love, but can also drive you crazy from the right point of view. I feel like I was really let off the leash to have a real opinion about that.

4) They Didn’t Set Out To Make The Sequel Funnier

While there is a lot more humor in ‘The Accountant 2,’ Jon Bernthal notes that Gavin O’Connor “never told us to be funny.” O’Connor says that it wasn’t done on purpose – it just happened that way.

Gavin O’Connor: I don’t think we ever said, “Oh, it has to be funny.” When I say I wanted the movie to be fun and entertaining, I mean, Jon and I had so many sit-downs where we would just dissect the character and the intention in the scene, but once you just put these guys together, both of these guys, their characters are slightly bonkers in certain ways, so if you just let them do their thing, it was such a fertile kind of environment. The reason I think it works is because they weren’t trying to be funny. They were just so ingrained in their characters.

5) Cynthia Addai-Robinson Says She And Her Character Evolved At The Same Time

Coming back to play Treasury agent Marybeth Medina, who is pushed to her limits both legally and physically by her collaboration with Christian and Braxton, Cynthia Addai-Robinson said that she and the character had a similar kind of growth from the first movie to the second.

Cynthia Addai-Robinson: I think I always viewed Marybeth as sort of the entry point for the audience because she’s observing and seeing all these things unfold around her and reacting in kind. And myself as an actor, same thing. I think back to working on the first movie. I was nervous. I was kind of out of my depth in a way, but just trying to present as if I wasn’t, which I think was a similar type of situation for Marybeth. Here we are eight years later, and Marybeth has evolved, she’s grown, she’s in this sort of elevated position within the Treasury Department, and for myself as a person and an actor, I felt like I had also grown, and it was like, “All right, I’m going to be returning to a situation that’s familiar. I feel a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident.” So that was really nice for me to kind of feel like, “Okay, I’m feeling like I can handle what I’m now getting thrown at me,” which is this dynamic with Ben and Jon’s characters and just, again, being that point of entry for the audience. I get to bear witness to all of their shenanigans and be like, “All right, these guys are kind of crazy and they’re also kind of challenging my view of how to serve justice really.”

6) Christian Wolff Is Not The Movie’s Protagonist, Says Ben Affleck

Although his role is right there in the title, Ben Affleck has a theory that somebody else is actually the movie’s main character.

Ben Affleck: The secret of this movie is that Cynthia is the protagonist really. She’s the lead in the movie. She is the entree for the audience, which means we get to play character parts, and there is a kind of relief from not having to carry a certain — there are a whole bunch of expectations and stuff that go with being the lead in the movie because, as Cynthia says, the audience is really projecting themselves onto you. So [Jon and I] are like a dual aggravant in some ways to her, and if you look at the math of the story, it’s about her being brought into this, seeing this person be killed, trying to find out what it was and what she has to go through to get there and the resolution of her story. That’s something that I find very artful and interesting, where this person is the lead of the movie and you have these dual character actors in there. That affords Jon and I the luxury of doing the sort of ‘Odd Couple‘ thing.

7) Daniella Pineda Says This Was Her Most Physically Demanding Role Yet

Daniella Pineda’s first big break came via a major role in ‘The Vampire Diaries’ TV spinoff ‘The Originals,’ and more recently she has appeared in action-oriented movies like ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ and ‘Plane.’ But she says the role of Anais – a ruthless killer with an enigmatic and ultimately bizarre backstory – was her most challenging yet.

Daniella Pineda: I would say it was definitely next level. I mean, it’s not necessarily a character you see all the time. There is something really compelling about watching a predator do their thing, but at the same time, I felt like there’s more to her. There are more layers there. So she’s not just a stone-cold killer, and it’s the type of role that I would like to see more women get to play. They’re certainly here in the real world. I love to beat the s**t out of Cynthia (laughs). But we were hugging in between takes and it was nice. I got really lucky. I had a good partner.

8) All The Action Was Character-Driven

Gavin O’Connor says the reason the action – which can be quite violent — works in ‘The Accountant 2’ is because the movie spends the time getting the viewer invested in the characters.

Gavin O’Connor: We can cite action movies that are great, but it just feels like the action is in front of the characters. For us, and the same with the girls, we were always coming from characters. What we were always tracking when we got to the third act was, “How are [Jon and Ben] working together? How are they now united?” We knew the stakes, we knew what they wanted, so inside the action and choreography, it was really about the emotional line between the two brothers and how are they going to try to accomplish this together. That was really what the conversations were about. Action isn’t emotional, and no one cares about disposable violence, so it was really evoking emotion because you care about the characters.

9) We Find Out A Lot More About Jon Bernthal’s Brax

While Jon Bernthal’s character, Brax, is a relatively late arrival in the first ‘Accountant,’ he’s in much more of the sequel and we get to discover more about Christian’s tough and fiercely loyal brother.

Jon Bernthal: Brax is really sort of shrouded in mystery in the first one. You really don’t know too much about him, but you have these amazing flashbacks to see how these two boys were raised and what their relationship was with their dad. It really is the crux of what is bothering both of them and what’s really bothering Brax, the roles that we’ve always filled for each other, getting each other’s back, having to be there for each other, and the lack of being there for each other. So it doesn’t culminate just in a gunfight, it culminates in, “Hey, I’m there for you. I’m getting your back, you’re getting mine. We’re joined forever,” and it’s a way, for lack of a better word, of showing how much you love somebody.

10) Ben Affleck Line Dances Onscreen For The First Time

In one unexpected scene, Christian and Brax take a night off and head to a bar – where the introverted Christian shockingly gets up and begins to line dance with a woman on the crowded floor. Affleck jokes about the scene, “America wasn’t asking for it, but they’re going to get it.”

Ben Affleck: That was one of the fun things about this, the idea that here’s a guy who wants to have a relationship with a woman, and he’s trying to figure out how to do that, how to put yourself out there. He’s not comfortable extending himself, he doesn’t really know how to flirt exactly, like so many of us. It’s not easy for anyone figuring out relationships, particularly the very early part where you’re trying to gauge, “What does this signal mean? Is this person looking at me? Do they like me? Am I going to humiliate myself if I go over there?” What he does is kind of a lovely thing: he uses something that he’s comfortable with, which in that case is the ability to recognize and identify the pattern of line dancing — because it is so structured and patterned — to participate in this. It’s the perfect way that he’s comfortable with standing next to this woman who he’s attracted to and wants to connect with, because it’s kind of like parallel play with little kids. You don’t have to look at somebody and engage them, but you get to be with them and do something next to them, and he finds a way that he’s comfortable doing that. I probably am not going to get a lot more demands for my line dancing work, but it was really fun. I think what’s charming about it, at least I hope, is that it’s somebody putting themselves out there to do something that they’re not necessarily great at, but they’re trying. I mean really, at the end of the day, that’s all any of us can do.

What is the plot of ‘The Accountant 2’?

When someone close to her is killed by unknown assassins, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is forced to contact Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax (Jon Bernthal), Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Accountant 2’?

• Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff / The Accountant
• Jon Bernthal as Braxton
• Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Marybeth Medina
• Daniella Pineda as Anaïs
• Allison Robertson as Justine
• J. K. Simmons as Raymond King
• Robert Morgan as Burke
• Grant Harvey as Cobb
• Andrew Howard as Batu

List of Gavin O’Connor Movies:

• ‘Comfortably Numb‘ (1995)
• ‘Tumbleweeds‘ (1999)
• ‘Miracle‘ (2004)
• ‘Pride and Glory‘ (2008)
• ‘Warrior‘ (2011)
• ‘Jane Got a Gun‘ (2016)
• ‘The Accountant‘ (2016)
• ‘The Way Back‘ (2020)
• ‘The Accountant 2‘ (2025)

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