‘The Accountant 2’ director talks ‘humanizing’ autism, RFK Jr.’s recent ‘ignorant’ remarks

If any politicians out there are unsure whether autistic people are capable of paying taxes, there’s no better movie to see this weekend than The Accountant 2. 

Ben Affleck stars in the sequel as Christian Wolff, a high-functioning autistic man who not only manages to pay his taxes but was also a highly in-demand CPA (of sorts) to some very powerful people. At least, that’s how we’re initially introduced to him in the first film. We soon learn, however, that Wolff is no ordinary bean counter. In fact, he’s a black market accountant to some of the world’s scariest people, helping them hide their blood money, for a fee, before quietly turning them over to the authorities. (A CPA with a conscience!) 

Oh, and he’s also an expert in weapons and hand-to-hand combat thanks to his military vet dad, who brutally trained him and his brother Braxton (played by Jon Bernthal) to fight like little Green Berets from the time they were old enough to throw a punch. Still, Wolff’s most powerful weapon is his neurodivergency, which he wields like a superpower, quickly and dispassionately solving complex puzzles in ways his neurotypical counterparts, like his brother, could never imagine.

While the sequel does away with a lot of the first film’s accounting lingo in favor of more action and laughs, Wolff’s past as a tax expert, along with his high-functioning autism, feels especially pertinent in light of recent comments from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The controversial politician recently made headlines for saying that, for many children, an autism diagnosis means they “will never pay taxes” or experience other joys, like playing baseball or writing a poem. (Kennedy later walked back the comments amid a firestorm of criticism, claiming he was only referring to a small subset of children with autism.)

Asked about those comments and the way autism is portrayed in the film, The Accountant 2 director Gavin O’Connor tells Entertainment Weekly, “I had heard that about RFK Jr., that he said that. I cannot believe that a man so intelligent would say something so dumb.”

He adds, “There are a lot of things I like about him, and I’m rooting for him, but I was just dumbfounded that he would say something like that. It’s such an ignorant thing to say.”

As for how the film portrays the disorder, O’Connor says, “For us, it was just about humanizing the character. That’s really what it’s about.”

And this time, the director notes, many of the characters with autism are portrayed by actors with autism. Like most superheroes, Wolff is aided in his efforts by the proverbial “guy in the chair” — but here, it’s Justine, a woman with nonverbal autism who communicates via computer. Justine works at Harbor Neuroscience, this film’s version of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, where Wolff was sent to live after his dad died. There, Justine leads a team of gifted young hackers, all on the spectrum, who help Wolff do everything from spying on private citizens to hacking traffic lights. 

“All the kids in the movie and Justine, they’re all somewhere on the spectrum,” O’Connor says. “And what did I do with them? [I said], ‘Teach me; how would you do this? What would you do? How would you approach this? You become the character, and you tell me.’ And that’s what they did.”

In the first film, O’Connor relied on a host of experts to craft Affleck’s character. “Chris is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, but you can’t settle on a diagnosis. They’re as different as people who are neurotypical. So we have to figure out the uniqueness and specificity of where Chris is on the spectrum and how that manifests itself.

He adds, “On the first movie, I surrounded myself with experts. I did a massive amount of research. Ben and I would go and sit down in classroom environments with all these men, mostly men on the spectrum, adults with whom we can ask questions and have dialogue.”

The director recalls with a laugh that when they held the first meeting of this kind, “everyone showed up in Batman T-shirts,” in honor of Affleck’s turn as the Dark Knight.

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In the near-decade that has passed since the first film came out, O’Connor says Affleck’s connection and understanding of the character have only deepened. 

“What was interesting is that in the time that went by, what happened in Ben’s life, without giving too much information — I’ll say this because he’s spoken about it — but in his life since the first one, he was much closer to someone who’s on the spectrum in a day-to-day basis,” he explains.

“And that really started to inform minute to minute, day to day, what that’s like. And he and I had many conversations about that,” he adds. “So, there’s a richer, deeper Christian, or Ben now, inhabiting the character because of what he’s experienced over these last years with really rubbing up against it.”

Affleck discussed his closeness with the material in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “The need to really understand this role and present it in a way that had authenticity, integrity, compassion, empathy, and understanding was the most important thing to me about this movie,” he told the outlet.

“In my own personal life, in the intervening years, it’s something that I’ve come to understand a lot better and have more compassion for and a deeper and richer understanding of it,” he continued. “One of the things I learned from people about whom I care very much is how much humor, warmth, [and] just sort of wonder and splendor there often is under sometimes an implacable surface.”

The Accountant is now in theaters.