After much analysis and research devoted to the study, I have determined two undeniable facts imparted by the Michael Bay film Armageddon.
First is that Michael Bay is the Bizzaro version of James Cameron that somehow came to our universe. The second is that Ben Affleck loves his craft but is so over the bullshit that comes with it. He’s been over it for a while too, as the commentary track from Armageddon revealed.
With commentary from cast and crew not as common as they were when DVDs were released, we’ve lost a little bit of this insight into how some actors and crew feel about the final product of their work.
While in most cases the commentaries can be full of fun behind-the-scenes stories and fond memories of filming or analysis, Ben Affleck made it known just how ridiculous he thought the entire premise was. Why would you send drillers into space instead of training astronauts to drill? It’s a valid question!
Michael Bay didn’t respond well to that, and per Affleck on the commentary would go on tirades every time any sort of stretch in science came up during filming.
This happened more often than not on set, which isn’t much of a surprise since Affleck isn’t afraid of making his feelings known on some of the films he’s been in (poor man looked so exhausted in Justice League). Any attempt to correct the science would simply be met with “f*ck you” after a certain point, with Bay refusing to make any corrections in the name of science.
Going by the belief that everyone has a complete opposite somewhere in the world, Bay fits exactly across the spectrum from James Cameron, known to be an asshole on set but also willing to change everything in the script in the name of science. Hell, if he wants something in the script that isn’t scientifically possible, he turns into that Thanos saying “I’ll do it myself”. Seriously, the dude helped create the submersible that took him to explore the Titanic wreckage, then dived to the Mariana Trench floor on his own. Bay had a robot pee on John Turturro and gave another one massive balls, come on.
If you want another reason Bay and Affleck didn’t mesh, just check Ben’s IMDB trivia. His impression of Michael Bay in the commentary is scary accurate as he recalls the director cursing him out, and the experience no doubt contributed to his fatigue with Hollywood in the last couple of decades.
Affleck has said he prefers smaller films to blockbusters and appreciates how straightforward the filming of those projects is compared to major studio productions which are wrapped in so much red tape nobody can find where it begins or ends. Interestingly he also says Harrison Ford is one of his heroes, and they’re oddly similar in their approach to the business and art of acting.
Either way, Affleck seems to be at a point in his career now where he can call shots for his projects, with a decent directing turnout for the last decade and adding a few more fantastic scripts to his library of writing.
Affleck is still putting in work, even coming back as Batman for The Flash, which… yeah, we won’t talk about The Flash. Meanwhile Michael Bay is doing Michael Bay things, which I assume means blowing shit up.
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