Before Ben Affleck became a two-time Oscar-winning industry heavyweight, an early career role taught him the importance of the worker\u2019s inalienable right to call off sick from work.<\/p>\n
While promoting his latest film and collaboration with Matt Damon, Netflix\u2019s The Rip, the multi-hyphenate recalled shooting a key Armageddon scene opposite star Bruce Willis while extremely ill.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen we shot that scene, I had food poisoning,\u201d he told Fox 32 Chicago\u2019s Jake Hamilton in a recent interview<\/a>. \u201cAnd I wasn\u2019t an experienced enough actor at that point to know that you can just pick up the phone and be like, \u2018I\u2019m too sick to work today.\u2019 I was like, \u2018I better come in.\u2019 And I went in there, and I was literally \u2014 it\u2019s the only time it\u2019s ever happened in my life \u2014 vomiting between takes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a garbage can and I was [mimics hurling]. And it probably made the scene better,\u201d he continued with a laugh, adding that he didn\u2019t choose to persevere out of perceived \u201cmartyrdom\u201d or extreme dedication to the 1998 film\u2019s emotional farewell sequence. (The heartrending denouement sees Willis\u2019 Harry sacrifice himself to detonate the earth-ending asteroid so that Affleck\u2019s A.J. can build a life with his daughter, played by Liv Tyler.)<\/p>\n Affleck reminisced on the disaster film, which granted him the opportunity to work with Billy Bob Thornton, Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson and Willis, whom he described as being \u201creally nice to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI actually saw Steve Buscemi last night at the premiere for\u00a0The Rip, and we were reminiscing about that movie and saying about how that was the weirdest, kind of wonderful, strange, otherworldly movie experience,\u201d the Gone Girl actor said.<\/p>\n Armageddon \u2014 directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and co-written by Tony Gilroy and J.J. Abrams (among others) \u2014 went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1998.<\/p>\n Best of Deadline<\/p>\n Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n