Ben Affleck says Armageddon director made him fix his teeth to land role

Ben Affleck debuted new teeth in the blockbuster Armageddon, but he’s since revealed the makeover wasn’t his choice.

Ben Affleck underwent a physical transformation before starring in the 1998 movie, Armageddon.

And now the US actor, who is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s February issue, has revealed he was made to get new teeth before landing the role of A.J Frost in the blockbuster film, Fox News reports.

He had shot to fame a year earlier in Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, in which he sported noticeably different teeth.

“I was a little naive about the opinions people would form about me,” the 49-year-old said. “Or [director] Michael [Bay] and [producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer]’s focus on aesthetics, like, ‘You guys gotta go to the tanning bed!’

“They made me fix my teeth and work out and be sexy. Be sexy, how do I do that? ‘Go to the gym!’ Running in the gym and putting oil on my body and stuff, and it just turned out to be a long-form version of one of those male topless calendars, in a garage, carrying a tyre, kind of greased up.”

Ben Affleck in 1997 film Good Will Hunting, just prior to getting his teeth altered.

Affleck debuted his new teeth for 1998’s blockbuster movie Armageddon.

According to Affleck, Bay “had a vision of a glistening male torso”.

“He was like, ‘That’s going to go in the trailer and sell tickets!’” Affleck said.

“And you know, what can you say? We could have made, I think, 400 Chasing Amys for what we made Armageddon for.”

And despite his decades-long career, Affleck said it’s Armageddon that his children prefer watching. He has three kids with ex-wife Jennifer Garner – Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13 and Samuel, 9.

“It’s funny because that’s the one movie of mine that my kids have watched and they’ll kind of all admit to liking, even though they relentlessly mock it and me,” the Oscar winner said.

“(They say) ‘What are you, driving a tank on the moon?’ But they had fun, you know what I mean? They won’t even watch The Town. So there you have it.”

Affleck revealed Armageddon was his kids’ favourite movie of his. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NBC

Armageddon explores how a group of oil drillers train for a space mission when an asteroid threatens to hit the Earth. The drillers are assigned to drill on the surface of the asteroid, detonating a bomb within it.

The action/drama, which also starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Liv Tyler, among others, was a commercial success. It grossed $US553 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1998.

Affleck has a new film titled The Tender Bar, which is now streaming on Prime Video.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Ben Affleck says Armageddon director made him fix his teeth to land role