The hardest movie Owen Wilson ever made: “And I died in it”
Acting is no easy job, from the long and arduous hours to the challenging characters that performers are often asked to inhabit, and in some cases, the pursuit of bringing a film to life can be worth documenting in its own right, with countless behind-the-scenes struggles usually cropping up in the process.
Every actor will have a story about a film they wanted to give up on, finding it demanding, exhausting, and perhaps utterly mentally draining, because the thing with acting is that you often have to try on the boots of another career while you’re also acting – the one that aligns with your character.
This is what Owen Wilson found when he was shooting Armageddon. Suddenly, he wasn’t just an actor, but he was experiencing a good chunk of what it must be like being an astronaut, well, apart from actually going into space.
The actor took on the role of Oscar Choice in the Michael Bay-directed film, which received mixed critical reviews in 1998. His character is a geologist who is chosen as one of the few recruits sent by NASA to prevent an asteroid from hitting Earth. With Bruce Willis in the lead, the movie had all the star power that you’d expect from a ‘90s sci-fi disaster blockbuster, and it was incredibly popular as a result.
Grossing a hefty $553million, Armageddon was a hit for Bay, who would soon go on to dedicate his career to the Transformers franchise. Wilson’s career has fared a lot better, and he even went on to earn a ‘Best Original Screenplay’ nomination from the Oscars for The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, which he also starred in.
Wilson hadn’t been in that many movies before Armageddon, having got his start in Wes Anderson’s indie flick Bottle Rocket a few years earlier, which he also wrote, so Bay’s film was a big opportunity for him. While it certainly catapulted him into the mainstream that bit more, Wilson soon found himself better suited to further Anderson collaborations and a string of comedic and voice roles, ranging from Zoolander to Cars.
He looks back on Armageddon as the most challenging movie of his career, with the costumes and extensive action taking its toll on the actor. “I just remember Armageddon, there was a lot of stuff of us being in the space suits and being on the asteroid,” he revealed on Hot Ones.
Wilson continued, “And these space suits that we had, they were not that comfortable. That was just a long, long shoot doing that movie.” It’s never going to be easy having to commit to such a strenuous and demanding shoot, but at least there was an upside.
“And I died in it, too! So I didn’t even have to do the last third of it,” Wilson exclaimed, relieved that he didn’t have to wear those uncomfortable costumes for as long as everyone else. Armageddon was certainly a learning experience for Wilson, who was still relatively new to the industry – especially to blockbusters, too – and it seems like he learned his lesson in taking on the kinds of movies that aren’t going to give you a break. That’s until your character dies, anyway.
