Michael Bay movies are often crowd pleasers, but near the top of any list of Bay’s best movies has to be his outer space disaster movie, Armageddon. The film has some incredible action, as well as some truly emotional moments. Interestingly, it turns out one of the most powerful scenes was aided by co-star Ben Affleck being incredibly sick.
If the ending of Armageddon can make a tough guy like Michael B. Jordan cry, you know it’s going to be something else. The scene, in which Bruce Willis’ character, Harry Stamper, trades places with Ben Affleck’s A.J. Frost, saving the younger man from certain death, is one of the all-time tear-jerkers. While speaking with Jake Hamilton of Jake's Takes, Affleck revealed that the scene was shot while he was ill, because the actor didn’t realize he was allowed to call in sick. He explained…
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 was like, I better come in.
Affleck mentions talking to Steve Buscemi at the premiere of his new movie, The Rip, which is available with a Netflix subscription. He says one of the elements that made the movie interesting was the way most of the actors were better known for smaller independent films, save for star Bruce Willis, who was an action movie vet. Clearly, Armageddon was a new experience for most of the cast.
On the one hand, the work that goes into setting up different scenes can be quite significant. In most cases, a production team can’t just change its mind and shoot a different scene that day because somebody called in sick. So it’s maybe understandable why Affleck didn’t think calling in sick was an option.
At the same time, being sick happens, and sometimes you are just too ill to work, no matter what else is going on. Affleck was so ill that he was apparently throwing up in between takes. However, in the end, he thinks the scene actually benefited from him being less than 100%. He joked…
I went in, I was literally, it’s the only time it’s ever happened in my life: vomiting between takes. They had a garbage can. It was a cut and [mimes vomiting]. And… it probably made the scene better. [laughs]
Ben Affleck may be more famous for his Armageddon commentary track than for the movie itself. Despite the way he ribbed his own film, though, he clearly put the work in to make the movie as good as he could. He does look absolutely physically wrecked in the dramatic scene, which can be seen below. He’s sweating and looks like he’s having trouble getting his words out. Maybe it’s acting. Maybe it’s just that he feels like hell.
I suppose we can thank Ben Affleck’s relative inexperience for helping make the scene more powerful. Many a moviegoer has admitted to tearing up during that moment, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment for a film about blowing up asteroids. That's not bad for a movie Michael Bay once apologized for.
