Ben Affleck Shares His Experience Filming a Tough Scene with Bruce Willis in Armageddon

Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck in ‘Armageddon’ (1998).
Credit: Frank Masi/Touchstone/Kobal/Shutterstock

NEED TO KNOW

• Ben Affleck reflects on the making of 1998’s Armageddon
• He recalls battling food poisoning while filming a pivotal scene opposite Bruce Willis
• Willis retired from acting in 2022 due to a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

Ben Affleck recently shared insights from his unique experience on the set of Armageddon, particularly regarding one challenging day of filming.

In a recent interview, Affleck disclosed that he was grappling with food poisoning while shooting one of the film’s emotional scenes, where his character A.J. Frost and Bruce Willis’s Harry S. Stamper switch places on an asteroid.

“When we shot that scene, I had food poisoning. I wasn’t experienced enough at that point to know that you can just pick up the phone and be like, ‘I’m too sick to work today.’ I thought, ‘I better come in.’ So I went, and I was literally — it’s the only time it’s ever happened in my life — vomiting between takes,” he recalled.

“They had a garbage can, and I was [vomiting between takes]. And it probably made the scene better,” he added with a laugh.

Affleck reflected on the lasting impact of the film, highlighting the opportunity to work alongside talented actors. He recently reunited with Steve Buscemi at the premiere for The Rip and they reminisced about their extraordinary experiences on Armageddon.

“That was the weirdest, kind of wonderful, strange, otherworldly movie experience that neither one of us had anything like it before,” he noted. He expressed gratitude for the chance to share the screen with a blockbuster cast, mentioning Willis as someone who was always “really nice to everybody.”

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer corroborated Affleck’s praise for Willis, highlighting the actor’s generosity on set. Bruckheimer remembered how Willis contributed to cash giveaways for crew members at the end of each week.

Bruce Willis as Harry S. Stamper in “Armageddon”.

Frank Masi/Touchstone/Kobal/Shutterstock

Bruckheimer noted, “Bruce is such a good guy. He was so generous to the crew,” explaining that he would contribute significantly to cash giveaways during crew drawings at the end of the week. “Crew members would always take away some nice extra cash at the end of the week, whoever won,” he said.

In March 2022, the Willis family announced that Bruce was “stepping away” from his long-standing acting career following a diagnosis of aphasia, a condition affecting his cognitive abilities. Just under a year later, his wife Emma Heming Willis revealed that he had also been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).