Ben Affleck Shot Armageddon Scene With Bruce Willis While Vomiting Between Takes

Ben Affleck shared a fun behind-the-scenes detail from the filming of his 1998 apocalyptic film Armageddon. The actor shared that he had the flu while shooting for one of the most emotional scenes in the film. The scene in question was the moment when Bruce Willis‘ character, Harry S. Stamper, switched places with Affleck’s A.J. Frost on the asteroid.

Ben shared that he was vomiting between the shots, and the team had a garbage bin nearby ready for him. The actor joked that, in hindsight, his vomiting made the scene better.

Ben Affleck Was Vomiting While Filming For Armageddon

In an interview with Fox 32 Chicago, Ben shared, “When we shot that scene, I had food poisoning. 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’m like, ‘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 joked, “They had a garbage can and I was [vomiting between takes]. And it probably made the scene better.”

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This isn’t the first time Ben’s story about the flu grabbed attention; Michael Bay, the director of the film, had shared the incident with The Hollywood Reporter earlier. He said, “Everyone was so misbehaved and so funny. I’ll tell you the truth. There was a three-gallon painting bucket next to Ben Affleck. He had the stomach flu. He felt like s**t. He looked like s**t, too. And he had to do that scene between him throwing up. We kept shooting him. And he’s great in that. And he’s great in that partially because he had the stomach flu.”

Ben Affleck Recalls Shooting For Armageddon

Meanwhile, in the same interview, Affleck reminisced about how great the filming of Armageddon was. He said, “I actually saw Steve Buschemi last night at the premiere for The Rip, and we were reminiscing about that movie and thinking about how that was the weirdest, kind of wonderful, strange, otherworldly movie experience that neither one of us had any experience with anything like it.”

Ben Affleck was last seen in The Rip alongside Matt Damon. The film is out on Netflix.