What Jason Isaacs Regrets About Starring in Armageddon with Bruce Willis

Actor Jason Isaacs has revealed what he regrets about appearing in the movie Armageddon alongside Bruce Willis. Armageddon is the 1998 film starring Willis, which tells the story of a misfit team of deep-core drillers who are recruited by NASA to save Earth after it is discovered that a meteor the size of Texas is about to collide with the planet. The movie was helmed by action-adventure legend Michael Bay, and was written by Jonathan Hensleigh and J.J. Abrams before he went on to have his successful directing career. While Armageddon wasn’t the most critically successful film of all time, it did gain praise from audiences and has gone on to become somewhat of a classic sci-fi film today.

Many Willis films, Armageddon included, have been reexamined by viewers over the last few weeks since the actor himself made a big announcement. As many now know, Willis will be retiring from acting, as he has been diagnosed with aphasia, and can no longer maintain his acting career. While it is sad, Willis won’t be gone from the cinemas for some time, as he managed to film numerous back to back films before he retired, with eight of them releasing in 2021 alone. With that said, many have returned to the actor’s older works to relive his glory days.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Isaacs has recalled what it was like to work on Armageddon with Willis, and has revealed that he has one major regret about the film. According to Isaacs, he was originally offered a role as one of the astronauts in the film, which is a larger part than he wound up playing. Unfortunately, Isaacs was also about to begin shooting the film Divorcing Jack, which would interfere with the Armageddon shoot. Isaacs has stated that his agents couldn’t understand why he “wouldn’t drop out to star opposite Bruce Willis.” Isaacs wound up playing his character Ronald Quincy as a “consolation prize,” but has admitted that he did envy the actors who got to play the astronauts. See his full quote below:

“…I was offered a bigger part as an astronaut, but I was just about to start shooting Divorcing Jack, and my American agents couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t drop out to star opposite Bruce Willis. So I ended up playing a consolation prize, and had to stand on set near Bruce Willis for six months as the astronauts strutted past, thinking: that could have been me in one of those jumpsuits.”

While it is understandable why Isaacs would feel somewhat envious of the actors who had the part he nearly did, he likely doesn’t feel that bad. In a way, Isaacs achieved the perfect actor’s scenario in which he was able to work on both projects with minimal compromises. The smaller role in Armageddon certainly hasn’t hurt Isaacs’ career either. Isaacs went on to play numerous iconic characters including Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and even did a stint as a villain on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Despite all the success, it seems Isaacs still looks back and wonders what might have been. Perhaps he would have appeared in more Willis films over the years. However, while a few people forget this, Isaacs’ character in the film is actually the one who eventually saves Earth, despite the movie focusing on other characters. Isaacs may not have been able to don the jumpsuit of an astronaut in Armageddon, however, he will always be the one who saved the human race.

Source: The Guardian