Ben Affleck, who is busy promoting his upcoming flick "The Way Back," has been showering praises on his ex-wife Jennifer Garner in his recent interviews. As it turns out, he had her to thank for letting the movie see the light of day.

The director of the film, Gavin O'Connor, revealed in a recent interview that he was going to axe the film after Ben Affleck had an alcohol relapse in 2018. But he moved the movie forward on the request of Jennifer Garner.

In a conversation with 34th Street Magazine, a student publication at the University of Pennsylvania, O'Connor said: "So, what happened was, just as we started prepping the movie, Ben fell off the wagon. So he ended up going to rehab, and I didn't know if the movie was over. The studio certainly thought the movie was over."

However, at that moment of confusion, the "Peppermint" actress called O'Connor and urged him to not give up on the film or Affleck. Recalling the phone call, the director said: "His ex-wife Jennifer Garner called me up, and told me that when he went to rehab, he took a basketball with him. She said, 'Gavin, he's asking you, please don't pull the plug on the movie, he really wants to do this.'"

"The Way Back," a poignant sports drama, is Affleck's first all-on-him movie in four years. It tells the story of a widowed, former basketball all-star who lost family foundation in a struggle with addiction, and attempts to make a comeback by becoming the coach of a disparate, ethnically mixed high school basketball team at his alma mater.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner Bauer-Griffin / getty

Affleck, who says his married life suffered the side-effects of his struggle with alcoholism, took basketball along with him to rehab to prepare himself for the film. At the film's Los Angeles premiere over the weekend, he spoke to People about the similarity between him and his character: "There are some things about this character I really could connect to — being a recovering alcoholic, going through family strife, a divorce. You try to bring your own life experience to the parts that you can, use your imagination on the other parts."