The mood on the set of “Armageddon,” it seems, was just as apocalyptic because the movie.
A revealing audio clip of star Ben Affleck from the DVD commentary of the 1998 summer blockbuster has gone viral, prefer it does once in a while, and listeners are again shocked by the actor’s frank admissions.
On the track, Affleck says fiery director Michael Bay told him to “shut the f—k up” when he began asking too many questions on the disaster film’s implausible plot.
“I asked Michael why it was easier to coach oil drillers to change into astronauts than it was to coach astronauts to change into oil drillers, and he told me to shut the f—k up,” said Affleck, who was just 25 years old when “Armageddon” hit theaters.
“’, Ben, just shut up, OK? , it is a real plan,’” Affleck, now 51, recalled Bay saying. “I used to be like, ‘You mean it’s an actual plan at NASA to coach oil drillers?’ And he was like, ‘Just shut your mouth!’”
In “Armageddon,” a Texas-size asteroid is hurtling toward earth and the US government decides to send a deep-core oil driller, played by Bruce Willis, and his blue-collar employees into space to put in a bomb to blow it to smithereens.
Notably, the screenplay was an early-career effort from J.J. Abrams, who would go on to direct “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” 17 years later.
Most critics shared Affleck’s skepticism. Roger Ebert, in his one-star Chicago Sun-Times review, said, “The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained.”
The Post’s Rod Dreher, nonetheless, disagreed, giving the movie a full 4 stars and calling it “a barreling, badass testosto-fest.”
“Armageddon” definitely struck a chord with destruction-hungry audiences, earning $533 million worldwide on its solution to becoming the highest-grossing movie of the yr.
