As I say, actors appear relatively rarely on such shows. Especially actors whose careers are going well. And so I was very surprised to see Ben Affleck as a contestant on this show. Ben seemed to be in a very bad mood all through this dream -- maybe because of some long series of unfortunate events in his life which had resulted in him appearing on a reality show.
It was also surprising that I was on the show. Firstly because I really sincerely would prefer not to. And strike two, I'm not at all famous.
I didn't recognize anyone in the entire dream except Mr Affleck and myself.
This was one of those "reality" shows which are also competitions. We contestants had been divided into about a half dozen teams, and there were about a half dozen members on each team. Just coincidentally, or so it seemed to me, I happened to be sitting next to Ben Affleck as the show's host explained the next round of the competition: ultimate fighting. We would all engage in mixed-martial arts fighting, each one of us versus one person from another team.
Ben Affleck had broken some rule, and was fined $20. He seemed quite annoyed, but promptly fished a $20 bill out of his pocket and handed it to the host. The host seemed to think for a minute, and then he handed the $20 bill to me.
I didn't want to annoy Ben Affleck, but I put the $20 bill in my pocket, because I didn't know what else to do.
It was a strange looking $20 bill: it wasn't green at all. It was white. Perhaps that's actually not strange. I haven't been keeping up to the minute with the changing appearance of US currency.
After a while I fished the $20 bill out of my pocket and handed it to Ben Affleck. This seemed to make him even more angry than he already had been. I didn't know why. But I suspect that if I tried to reach out to him and communicate about the incident, tried to reassure him that I meant neither to cheat not to insult him, I would only make him angrier. This sort of situation -- unintentionally angering someone and not knowing what to do to make things right, is very familiar to me, because I am autistic and have great difficulty reading non-verbal communication.
I didn't know whether the show's host had intended all along to stir things up between me and Ben Affleck, or if he noticed the tension between us and changed plans on the spot because of that. Whatever the reason, he announced that Ben Affleck and I would face each other in the first round of ultimate fighting.
In waking life, I've been working out for the past 2 months with a 100-pound dead ball, and I have found it to be a great conditioning tool, and I feel very strong. In the dream I also felt very strong. As we all started getting physically, and, above all, it seemed to me, mentally ready to engage in this combat, there was a lot of talk among the contestants about the match between me and Ben Affleck. Many people remarked that I outweighed Ben Affleck, which would give me an edge, but that he was younger and seemed to be in much better condition.
Although in many situations, as I've said, I'm very unskilled in reading non-verbal communication, in this situation, before the ultimate fights were to begin, it seemed very clear to me that almost all of the contestants, male and female alike, were 1) terrified, because they were utterly unprepared for this sort of fighting; 2) in denial about being afraid; and 3) exhibiting great amounts of machismo in order to try to convince themselves and their opponents that they were very well-prepared.
I thought that trying to convince myself or anyone else that I wasn't afraid would be a waste of the short time I had to prepare. I ignored the macho displays as much as I could, and tried to prepared mentally for the match. I had very little in terms of ideas of what to do. I never watch ultimate fighting. I came up with a 3-part plan: 1) pretend to be interested in punching and kicking right from the start, when in reality I would be waiting for Ben Affleck to over-extend himself with a punch or kick; and 2) try to grab his arm or leg which he had exposed by the overly-aggressive punch or kick; and 3) hold that limb under under one arm while beating him with the other fist.
It worked: Ben Affleck made a huge roundhouse kick, I was able to grab his leg and hold it fast under one arm, then I charged until he fell on his back, never letting go of the leg, and with him on his back and me above I punched him in the face over and over until the referee stopped the fight and declared me to be the winner.
As we both stood up on very wobbly legs, the host announced that the bout -- he used the word "bout" -- had lasted 12 seconds. Blood was streaming from Ben Affleck's nose. I looked at him and spread my arms in an offer of a post-fight hug, because I've seen boxers hug often after fights. He accepted the hug. I still said nothing, because I was still didn't know why he was angry, and I still was worried about making him more angry.
Then I woke up.
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