Hollywood legend Ben Affleck didn’t let a serious bout of a food poisoning stop him from filming one of the most unforgettable moments in Armageddon.
The actor, 53, played A.J. Frost, a driller sent into space to stop an asteroid from striking Earth alongside his future father-in-law Harry S. Stamper (played by Bruce Willis).
At the film’s climax, Stamper sacrifices himself in order to save the world – allowing Frost to return home and be with his fiancee Grace Stamper (Liv Tyler).
But filming the scene was much more difficult for Affleck than it would appear.
The A-lister has now revealed he was vomiting in between takes after coming down with a horrible spell of food poisoning.
‘When we shot that scene, I had food poisoning, and I wasn’t an experienced enough actor at that point to know that you can just pick up the phone and be like, “I’m too sick to work today.” I’m like, “I better come in,”‘ he recalled during an interview with Jake’s Takes.
Ben Affleck has revealed he was vomiting while shooting one of the most unforgettable moments in 1998’s Armageddon
The actor was suffering from severe food poisoning while shooting a heart-wrenching scene with Bruce Willis
‘And I went and I was literally – it’s the only time it’s ever happened in my life – vomiting between takes. They had a garbage can and they would say “cut” and,’ Affleck said, making a vomiting noise. ‘It probably made the scene better!’
‘It wasn’t a martyrdom, you know?’ he added.
The film starred Owen Wilson, Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Buscemi, and Bruce Willis – who Affleck said was ‘really nice to everybody’.
Affleck had recently run into Buscemi at the premiere of The Rip where they took a walk down memory lane over the movie.
‘I saw Steve Buscemi last night at the premiere for The Rip, and we were reminiscing about that movie and saying about how that was the weirdest, kind of wonderful, strange, otherworldly movie experience that neither one of us had any experience with anything like it.’
Directed by Michael Bay, the 1998 film follows driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) who is recruited by NASA head Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) to fly into space to detonate an asteroid that is hurdling towards Earth.
The driller gathers his best men which includes A.J. (Ben Affleck) who pursues a relationship with Harry’s daughter Grace (Liv Taylor) despite his protestations.
In 2022 Affleck opened up about the requirements he was forced to meet before playing his ‘sexy’ role in the film.
In the scene, Willis’ character sacrifices himself in order to save Earth
Stamper’s gesture also allows Frost to return home and be with his fiancee, played by Liv Tyler
Affleck said his co-star was ‘really nice to everybody’ on set
‘I was a little naive about the opinions people would form about me,’ the actor said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. ‘Or Michael [Bay] and Jerry [Bruckheimer]’s focus on aesthetics, like, “You guys gotta go to the tanning bed!”‘
He continued, ‘They made me fix my teeth and work out and be sexy. Be sexy, how do I do that? “Go to the gym!” Running in the gym and putting oil on my body and stuff, and it just turned out to be a long-form version of one of those male topless calendars, in a garage, carrying a tire, kind of greased up.’
According to Affleck, Bay had a very specific vision for the movie, one that included, ‘a glistening male torso in the oil, and he was like, “That’s going to go in the trailer and sell tickets!”‘
While Armageddon didn’t get the best reviews, the Gone Girl actor revealed that his kids still love that movie.
‘It’s funny because that’s the one movie of mine that my kids have watched and they’ll kind of all admit to liking, even though they relentlessly mock it and me,’ the star said. ‘”What are you, driving a tank on the moon?” But they had fun, you know what I mean? They won’t even watch The Town. So there you have it.’
