Ben Affleck reveals transformation for Armageddon: ‘Be sexy, how do I do that?’

Ben Affleck is opening up about the physical transformation he underwent, as he prepared for his role in the 1998 sci-fi film ‘Armageddon.’

The 49-year-old actor revealed all the details during his recent interview with Matt Damon, admitting he was “a little naive about the opinions people would form about me,” looking back at his performance in different movies, including the iconic film directed by Michael Bay.

Ben described the process, explaining the director was focused on aesthetics, as he was told he had to “go to the tanning bed,” and they made him “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 tire, kind of greased up,” Ben shared, referring to his character, an oil driller recruited by NASA.

© Touchstone Pictures

And while the process seemed to be uncomfortable for the star, the movie was a total success. “Michael had a vision of a glistening male torso in the oil, and he was like, ‘That‘s going to go in the trailer and sell tickets!’ And you know, what can you say?” Ben said.

He went on to reveal that ‘Armageddon’ is “the one movie of mine that my kids have watched and they‘ll kind of all admit to liking,“ and ”even though they relentlessly mock it and me. ‘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.“