Ben Affleck names the greatest achievement of his career: “In retrospect, my best work”
Ben Affleck has achieved an incredible amount in his career in the movie business. He’s experienced ups and downs as an actor, yet has still managed to sustain his status as a leading man for almost 30 years, making several excellent films. He’s also one of the industry’s most reliable actor-turned-directors, winning ‘Best Picture’ for his nailbiting thriller Argo, and he even began his career by winning the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ Oscar for Good Will Hunting alongside his best buddy Matt Damon.
By any stretch of the imagination, that’s a career filled with achievements that most other stars would be green with envy over. However, Affleck has found over the years that there is one thing he is congratulated about almost as much as any movie he’s ever made, or any Oscar he’s won. Indeed, the Boston-born star has always had a reputation for being more brutally honest than most stars, often to hilarious effect. So, when he sat down to record a commentary track for one of his biggest hits, he infamously spoke his mind so freely that it soon became part of Hollywood lore.
To be fair, it’s easy to understand why Affleck would have been shocked and amused at Armageddon, the risibly silly Michael Bay blockbuster he starred in with Bruce Willis, being included in the prestigious Criterion Collection for its DVD release. That label is usually reserved for artistic, challenging movies that lend themselves to scholarly analysis and are vital for preserving cinema as a medium. Armageddon, which features a ragtag group of oil drillers being trained as astronauts to drill a hole in an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, sounds a million miles away from a typical Criterion release.
Perhaps Affleck was still baffled by Criterion’s involvement in Armageddon when he recorded the track. Maybe he just didn’t realise at that point in his career that commentaries were intended as vehicles for stars and directors to lightly shoot the shit, and maybe dole out a couple of neat behind the scenes facts. Instead, the young star proceeded to run down the logical inconsistencies of the movie so completely, and with such joie de vivre, that the track soon became talked about in hushed whispers. Hell, he even revealed Bay told him to “shut the fuck up” on-set when he wouldn’t stop pointing out how dumb the movie was.
Over the years, clips from the Armageddon commentary have circulated so often on social media that they have developed a legendary reputation all their own, completely separate from the film. Affleck acknowledged as much in 2025 when he appeared in the hallowed Criterion closet to pick some of his favourite films in the collection and happened to lift Armageddon off the shelf.
“I was surprised when I heard Criterion was doing Armageddon,'” Affleck smiled. “I didn’t think of it as that kind of movie when we did it. And in retrospect now, I feel like maybe my best work in my career is the commentary on this disc. People approach me to talk about the commentary on this disc as much as they do the movies I’ve been in.”
Affleck admitted with as much honesty as ever that he only cut loose on the track because he legitimately didn’t know any better. “By the way, nobody said anything to me,” he insisted to GQ. “I don’t think any of the other people listened to it or gave a fuck until years later when it was played.” Still, he copped to feeling embarrassed that he told the unvarnished truth in such a scathing way, and sheepishly noted, “You’re not supposed to go on there and tell all of the truth.”
In the end, though, the track took on such a life of its own and gave so many people so much joy that Affleck was able to make his peace with his loose lips. In fact, he’s now as happy with it as any of his films or major accolades. “It is an achievement that I am proud of,” he nodded, “and didn’t intend to be as good as I now think it is, at the time.”
