{"id":631439,"date":"2026-10-15T14:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/631439\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T14:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:02:12","slug":"ben-affleck-claims-bruce-willis-warned-him-off-movie-that-ended-up-winning-best-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/631439\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Affleck claims Bruce Willis warned him off movie that ended up winning Best Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ben Affleck<\/a> has said Bruce Willis<\/a> once gave him advice that he thankfully ignored \u2013 claiming his Armageddon<\/a> co-star told him not to bother with Shakespeare in Love. <\/p>\n

The two actors starred in the 1998 action thriller shortly before Affleck, now 54, switched things up with his role in John Madden\u2019s romantic comedy, which went on to win seven Oscars<\/a> including best picture.<\/p>\n

In an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Batman actor detailed some of the advice Willis shared while they were on the Armageddon set. <\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cBruce Willis once turned to me and was like, \u2018Your voice is too high.\u2019 I was like, \u2018What?\u2019 He was like, \u2018Don\u2019t have that high voice.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Bruce, that\u2019s just my voice. Can I change that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding that Willis was \u201cthe sweetest guy in the world\u201d who \u201creally was giving me a tip\u201d, Affleck continued: \u201cHe also was like, \u2018Man, don\u2019t go do that Shakespeare movie, man. You don\u2019t wanna do that movie.\u2019 He was wrong about that one. But he hadn\u2019t read the script, in all fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AffleckAffleck thankfully didn\u2019t take his co-star\u2019s advice (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Affleck played Ned Allen, an actor who appeared in productions at the Globe Theatre, in Shakespeare in Love. <\/p>\n

The film saw Joseph Fiennes<\/a> portray the famous playwright, while Gwyneth Paltrow<\/a> played his fictional lover Viola de Lesseps \u2013 and won her first Oscar in the process. A work of historical fiction, the movie sees Shakespeare suffering from writer\u2019s block until he finds inspiration in noblewoman de Lesseps, who he later embarks on a passionate affair with.<\/p>\n

The supporting cast also included the likes of Colin Firth<\/a>, Geoffrey Rush<\/a> and Dame Judi Dench<\/a>. The latter had less than 10 minutes of screen time as Queen Elizabeth I but won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making it one of the shortest Oscar-winning performances of all time. <\/p>\n

Shakespeare in Love\u2019s other Academy Award wins included best original screenplay, best music and best costume design. <\/p>\n

\"AffleckAffleck in \u2018Shakespeare in Love\u2019 (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

Affleck is currently on the promotional trail for his new Netflix<\/a> film Animals, a crime thriller he has co-written and co-directed, as well as starring in. <\/p>\n

As well as revealing some of the projects he\u2019s most proud of, the actor has also candidly discussed some of the lowest points of his career<\/a>, including 2017\u2019s Justice League<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Affleck played Batman in the movie, which was mired with trouble throughout production \u2013 and proved to be so excruciating for the star that he\u2019s sworn off starring in another superhero film. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, the experience of Justice League<\/a> was so, so negative for lots of different reasons,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of which having to do with where I was personally, some of which having to do with the tragedy that happened during the time, and also the fact that I really saw how not to make a movie like that when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You\u2019re really making a mistake. That was what really doomed that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-631439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}