Michael Bay hasn’t been making headlines recently with louder films; after the Transformers series, he somehow hasn’t landed any mega-movie projects, although he made a comeback with 6 Underground, and he has some projects on the horizon. Armageddon is now considered a classic, even though critics didn’t like it, but audiences still enjoy it despite its ridiculousness. The film definitely tugs at the heartstrings towards the end when Bruce Willis’s character sacrifices himself to save humanity by blowing himself up on the asteroid, making sure that Liv Tyler’s character doesn’t become a widow too soon. At that point, he ejects Ben Affleck’s character from his side. Well, according to Michael Bay, Affleck threw up a lot during that scene because the actor was battling acute stomach issues, but that actually made his sweaty, tearful performance in the farewell scene even more authentic.
Bay isn’t slacking off, working not only as a producer but also as a director. He recently filmed a documentary titled We Are Storror, about parkour enthusiasts. This documentary was premiered over the weekend and will be shown at the Texas SXSW festival next week. To mark this occasion, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed the director, and the conversation turned to Armageddon. Here’s the anecdote he shared regarding the filming of the tear-jerking scene:
"That film was mind-blowing. The whole experience was like a summer camp, and I was the camp counselor. Everyone behaved pretty badly, and it was really funny. Let me be honest with you. There was a huge 10-liter paint bucket next to Ben Affleck the whole time. He had gastritis. He felt awful. He looked like crap. And he had to do that scene between throwing up. We kept filming without stopping. He was great in it. He was great practically because he was suffering from gastritis."
The reporter originally wanted to squeeze a bit more out of Bay (since they were talking about vomiting) about how Ben Affleck criticized him for the illogicalities in Armageddon. It’s a famous story that Affleck pointed out how unrealistic it was to train oil drillers to be astronauts instead of teaching astronauts how to drill. Bay’s response to him was, "Shut the f*ck up and do what you’re good at – act." Affleck also had other struggles; under the director’s orders, he had to get his teeth fixed, and he nearly fainted from the spacesuit since he wasn’t getting enough air in the helmet (which would be pretty uncomfortable in real life in space). In any case, it’s now clear why the actor looks so rough in the farewell scene: because he truly felt awful.
