Ben Affleck Reflects on His ‘Armageddon’ DVD Commentary

remain one of Hollywood’s most memorable acts of public self-reflection. More than two decades after the film’s release, Affleck has confirmed that he continues to stand by his tongue-in-cheek but seemingly all-true critiques of the logic behind the movie’s plot. While Armageddon pulled in massive ticket sales and became a staple of late-90s pop culture, Affleck’s brutally honest commentary gave everyone a good idea of how the actor had to ignore his storytelling instincts when working on the movie.

Speaking in a recent interview with GQ, Affleck addressed his infamous DVD commentary moment, when he called out the absurdities of the Michael Bay-directed movie. He explained:

“That is one of the achievements of my career on which I’m willing to pat myself on the back. I believe that may be at least top five all-time DVD commentaries. By the way, nobody said anything to me. I don’t think any of the other people listened to it or gave a f*ck until years later when it was played.

And I was kind of shocked and appalled that I went on there and started being like…. I mean, that’s all true. Everything I said was a hundred percent true, but that’s the point. You’re not supposed to go on there and tell all of the truth.”

Ben Affleck Felt Like Something Small in Something Very Big

Of course, back when Armageddon was released in 1998, Ben Affleck was not the Oscar-winning director or acclaimed actor he is now, and for that reason there were many things that he just had to go along with when working on the film. Starring alongside industry icons like Bruce Willis, he was a small fish. He continued:

“I never expected, ‘Oh, this is going to be genius.’ I thought, I’m going to go do a big Hollywood action movie and I love it. And yes, during the movie, I was kind of surprised to find that sometimes they weren’t all that interested in making sense.

And I was the only person who was kind of like, “Okay, I guess we don’t operate by those other rules here.” But there’s a sense of being small and of this thing being big. And so I felt like a little ant on the elephant when I would shoot my mouth off about the conversation I had with Michael [Bay, the director of Armageddon] about why is it easier to train oil drillers to be astronauts than to train astronauts to drill a hole in the ground?”

Like many Michael Bay movies, Armageddon is all about spectacle, action, and, of course, the big bombastic finale where the day is saved and everyone celebrates in true American style. Plot holes are not exactly uncommon in this type of crowd-pleasing blockbuster, and while critics are happy to point out these flaws, cinema audiences don’t always pay that much attention…or don’t care. For Affleck, it seems that time has not changed his view of the problems of Armageddon, and we probably didn’t really expect anything else.

Source: GQ

Armageddon

Release Date

July 1, 1998

Runtime

151 minutes

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