Michael Bay Fondly Recounts Filming ARMAGEDDON With Bruce Willis, Who Tried to Break Into the Space Shuttle
In the wake of the news that beloved actor Bruce Willis has decided to retire from acting due to his diagnosis with aphasia, a language disorder caused by brain damage that affects a person’s ability to communicate, many have come out to lend support and stories from his impressive career.
One director who remembers working with him fondly is Michael Bay, who directed him in one of the biggest movies of each of their careers, Armageddon. Bay is out talking about his most recent film Ambulance, which hit theaters this past weekend, and Variety asked him about working with Willis. He said, “Bruce, he’s a movie star. He can command the screen. He’s very funny too.” He went on to add, “He takes control of the cast, and he’s got a great fun energy and I had a great time. He was tough at first, and by the way, ‘Armageddon’ was a total fun set. … It was almost like camp.”
He fondly recalled the following story about filming the movie at the NASA Space Shuttle:
“They stopped prepping it for one hour, for us. We are on the gantry [the Orbiter Access Arm, which allows access into the shuttle], and Bruce was able to walk in,” Bay recalled, explaining that the actor was allowed to sit on the capsule door, but go no further. “He goes to me, ‘Mike, we’re gonna do one take; the second take, I’m going to make a run for it and I’m going to go inside the shuttle.'”
So the pair walked from the cleanroom to the capsule door, Bay continued, “Bruce is about to break into the space shuttle … and these guys, all in suits, fully masked up, they’re like [wagging his finger side to side], ‘Uh, uh, uh!’”
It’s pretty cool to hear any behind the scenes stories from films we’ve seen, but this one means even more as Bruce Willis’s career comes to an end. It’s a fun story, and I’m glad Bay shared it with Willis’s fans. It’s hilarious that he tried to break into the space shuttle, but who could blame him? If you are that close, you at least would have to try!