Bruce Willis criticized Michael Bay for ‘Armageddon’, and this is how the director responded

‘Armageddon’, the iconic 1998 disaster film, had it all to succeed: a main star as famous as Bruce Willis, a cast filled with rising stars, and a director, Michael Bay, who had just completed two successful blockbusters: ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘The Rock’. It was the highest-grossing film of its year with more than 550 million dollars in revenue with a budget of 140 million and it was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Song and Best Special Effects. However, Bruce Willis -beyond winning the Razzie award to Worst Actor for his role in said film - did not seem too happy with the director, even stating that he would “never work with him again”.

Bruce Willis versus Michael Bay and Joel Silver

In 2007, a few months after the premiere of ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, Bruce Willis was asked for a possible new installment of the ‘Die Hard’ series in charge of Michael Bay, given the criticism of the fourth part for its marked turn to cinema. “He would have ruined DH4. Few people will work with him now, and I know I will never work with him again,” he said about Michael Bay after working with him on ‘Armageddon’ a few years earlier.

And he also dedicated a few words to the producer Joel Silver, with whom he had worked on the first two installments of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘The Last Boy Scout’: “Fuck Joel Silver. That is because you do not understand my relationship with Joel S. We are cordial now when we bump into each other, but we have not worked together since ‘The Last Boy Scout,’” Willis acknowledged.

Michael Bay’s reaction didn’t take long, showing his disbelief at his colleague’s opinion, adding that he even received the proposal from Willis’s entourage to direct the fourth part of ‘Die Hard’: “Hard to believe it really is Bruce saying that stuff on AICN. I loved working with Bruce. He gave me a big hug one month ago at the GM party and we talked for 20 minutes.”

“We even talked about working together again! I mean it would be sad if he felt this way – he’s never one to hide his feelings – I say sad, in that he wouldn’t be man enough to say it to my face. But truly sad that such a big time actor would have to hide on a little talk back section. So I really don’t believe this story.I find it also totally odd that my agents at William Morris got the call from Bruce’s people to inquire if I would like to helm Die Hard 4, but I was already on Transformers.”

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