Billy Bob Thornton was persuaded to join the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon despite initially viewing it as a largely meaningless spectacle. The film marked a notable departure from the eccentric, independent-film roles that had established his reputation, and helped make him familiar to a much wider audience.

Thornton played Dan Truman, NASA’s mission director, as an asteroid threatens Earth and a team of oil drillers is sent into space to stop it. He said others urged him to accept the part, while its producers’ decision to cast actors such as Thornton, Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson rather than conventional action stars appealed to him. Armageddon, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, became a major commercial success despite criticism of its scientific plausibility and bombastic style.