Ben Affleck explains how Adam Driver saved his son's birthday with Kylo Ren kindness

Ben Affleck almost faced a parenting disaster on the way to his son's birthday party, but at the eleventh hour his new co-star Adam Driver, and Kylo Ren, saved the day. 

Affleck was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday night to promote his new drama The Way Back, and in the course of talking about everything from his friendship with Matt Damon to his New England Patriots fandom, talk turned to his eight-year-old son. Affleck had hoped, through some clever room decoration, to make his son into a Patriots superfan as well, but it turns out the boy has an eye for a galaxy far, far away. 

“My son knows that I do movies — they’re kinda fake — that his mom's [Jennifer Garner] in movies and that's all pretend," Affleck explained. "But he also knows that Star Wars is real."

With that in mind, Affleck explained that he was thrilled to be able to tell his son that his next movie — Ridley Scott's historical drama The Last Duel, co-written by Affleck and Damon — happens to co-star Kylo Ren himself, Adam Driver. According to Affleck, when he told his son he was in a movie with Driver, "his mind opened in two," so while on the set of The Last Duel in France, he asked Driver if he'd mind making a video wishing his son a happy birthday. 

With his son's eighth birthday looming while he was working on The Last Duel, Affleck did his best to plan out what he'd do for the party, including ordering a number of gifts that were shipped to his Los Angeles home. In the video above, Affleck explained to Kimmel how he flew home from France to Los Angeles and rushed to his house to get ready for the party, only to be told that the gifts he'd ordered while he was away hadn't showed up. 

"So I had to show up to my son’s party with no gift," he said. "It was this sort of sinking, awful feeling."

Then, Affleck's associate told him the good news. 

"'Adam heard you say it was your son’s birthday, and so he called your assistant and got your address, and sent some presents and signed a card and a picture from Kylo Ren,'" Affleck recalled. 

So, Affleck took Driver's present to his son's surprise party, waited until all the other presents had been opened, and then told him that while his presents had gotten lost in the mail, he'd found some extra special ones from Kylo Ren. According to Affleck, who was visibly moved as he recounted the story, it worked like a charm.

"He opens the presents, I played him the video of Kylo Ren, and it was an incredibly moving and powerful moment. Adam made me a hero to my kids," Affleck said, and added: "It's a really good lesson in doing those small gestures of kindness."

So, while he doesn't always play the nicest characters in films, this is yet more evidence that Adam Driver is, in fact, a Good Guy. 

The Way Back is in theaters Friday. The Last Duel is set to be released this Christmas.