Bruce Willis once told co-star Ben Affleck that he shouldn’t star in the Oscar-winning film ‘Shakespeare in Love ’: ‘He hadn’t read the script’ |
Ben Affleck recently opened up about a piece of advice that he received from ‘Die Hard’ star Bruce Willis early in his career. During one of his latest interviews, the ‘Animals’ actor recalled an anecdote about how Willis gave him advice regarding one of his romantic comedy films, ‘Shakespeare in Love.‘Read ahead to know more about what Willis had to share with Affleck at the time.
Ben Affleck talks about Bruce Willis’ advice to him
While featuring on the latest episode of the podcast, ‘Happy Sad Confused,’ Affleck recalled his time working with the actor on the film ‘Armageddon.’ He shared that at the time, Willis, who is best known for his work in the ‘Die Hard’ franchise, had advised him against doing one of his most popular scripts. He recalled, “He also was like, ‘Man, don’t go do that Shakespeare movie, man.’ “You don’t want to do that movie.’ He was wrong about that one. But he hadn’t read the script, in all fairness.” For context, ‘Shakespeare in Love’ was a massive hit at the time, and the film went on to win the Best Picture at the Oscars in 1999.
Ben Affleck recalls Bruce Willis told him that his voice was too high
Another piece of advice that the now-retired actor had for Affleck was regarding his voice and how high-pitched it was. The ‘Justice League’ stated further that Willis told him, ‘Your voice is too high. ‘I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘Don’t have that high voice.’ I was like, ‘Bruce, that’s just my voice. Can I change that?’” to which the ‘Moonlighting’ actor had replied, “You don’t want to sound like that, man! I’m helping you out!”Affleck also then called the veteran icon “the sweetest guy in the world” and said that he was only giving his opinion and advice at the time. “I love Bruce. And he really was giving me a tip,” Affleck concluded.
Plot of ‘Shakespeare in Love’
Directed by John Madden, the 1998 film is set in 1593 London, where a young playwright who goes by the name William Shakespeare suffers from severe writer’s block while trying to finish a new comedy titled Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter for theatre owner Philip Henslowe. The story represents a fictional love affair between Shakespeare, who is played by Joseph Fiennes, and Viola de Lesseps, who is played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Affleck portrayed the character of Ned Alleyn, an actor who appears in Shakespeare’s productions at the Globe.
