You’d think having Ben Affleck as your dad would be cool. He’s been in some of the best movies of the last 40 years and remains an incredibly sought-after filmmaker. That’s not quite the case because one of his action movies is a favourite for some of the wrong reasons.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck answered, which was the first release of his that his children watched. Disaster movie Armageddon is the answer, but they didn’t love it for the madcap plot. “They like movies where they can make fun of me,” he says. “They really liked the idea that I was an astronaut or an oil driller, and they just found the whole thing kind of preposterous.”
Armageddon is a wild ride featuring Affleck as part of a crew from an oil rig who are brought in to build a contraception that’ll plant a bomb on an oncoming asteroid. Bruce Willis leads the team because he designed a special kind of drill.
Affleck hastens to add that his children “love” the Michael Bay-directed science fiction movie. It’s a ’90s movie emblematic of the excesses of that decade, and a lot of what makes the picture stand up is tongue-in-cheek.
The actor and director reveals that the film he more intently watches with his young’uns is drama movie Good Will Hunting, and he discusses how strange it is to see himself so young on-screen, and compares that to their upbringing. “It was interesting for me to watch them watch the movie and see how different their childhood is from what my childhood was like,” he says.
“I wonder about what that must seem like to them and how distant it is from their life and reality,” he states. “They were engaged and interested.” Probably a better choice for show and tell! Have a look at our new movies list to see where else the former Batman actor might turn up.