“Really terrifying”: True crime fans are amazed by the physical resemblance between Scott Peterson and Ben Affleck from “Gone Girl”

Is art imitating life or…? With two documentaries about Scott Peterson hitting streaming services this month, crime fans are noticing the stark physical resemblance between the convicted murderer and actor Ben Affleck, who played a similar role in the 2014 film. GoneGirl.

In the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's crime novel, Affleck plays Nick Dunne, who becomes the prime suspect in the missing person case of his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike).

Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, who disappeared in 2002 while pregnant with their unborn son, Conner. Laci and Conner's remains were found in San Francisco Bay in 2003.

American Murder: Laci Peterson was released on Netflix last Wednesday (August 14), and the three-part documentary series has drawn reactions regarding Peterson and Affleck's resemblance.

“It's really scary how similar Scott Peterson and Ben Affleck look,” wrote one X-user. “They have met with the GoneGirl “Casting.”

Another noted on X that when he looked at the new document he recognized Peterson’s “weird grin” and “immediately said to [their] Husband “that reminds me of Ben Affleck in GoneGirl.”

One viewer said it was “INSANE how much Ben Affleck's character in Gone Girl is based on Scott Peterson.”

However, as noted The Daily Mailsaid Flynn Weekly entertainment in a 2012 interview that she “definitely didn’t want to do anything specific” when asked if she had modeled the novel “after a specific real-life case.” While she claimed that “one could point to Scott and Lac[i] Peterson” and that “they were certainly a good-looking couple,” she argued that “it's always good-looking couples” since these are the people who “end up on TV.”

“You don't usually see incredibly ugly people disappear and then it becomes a sensation,” Flynn continued. “It could be any number of cases like that, but that's what interested me: the selection and packaging of a tragedy. In a way, I recreated some of that. What will increase media interest in it and what will make it believable that the media will pounce on it?”

A Reddit forum discussing whether Peterson and Affleck look alike is also growing in debate, with some pointing out the “uncanny” resemblance between Peterson's interview with Diane Sawyer and Affleck's interview scene with Nick Dunne in the film. Another Reddit user said he was “glad” he was “not the only one” who noticed the resemblance.

However, some disagreed.

“This is not the Ben Affleck I ordered. Return to sender lol,” joked one.

The teaser trailer for the other new Peterson docuseries, Peacock's Face to face with Scott Peterson – which appeared on the streamer on Tuesday (August 20) – features an interview with Peterson, the first since 2003. Peterson expressed regret for cheating on his wife before her disappearance, claiming he “feels[s] so much shame.”