Ben Affleck has spoken about the time Bruce Willis advised him not to do Shakespeare in Love – unsolicited advice that he thankfully ignored.Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Affleck, 54, revealed Willis gave him the career tip while they were filming the 1998 sci-fi blockbuster Armageddon, just months before he was due to start the romantic comedy period film.’He was like, “Man, don’t go do that Shakespeare movie, man. You don’t wanna do that movie,”‘ Affleck told host Josh Horowitz.Affleck, who recently admitted he uses ‘R-rated’ language while playing video games against kids, did, in fact, take the supporting role of actor Ned Alleyn and Shakespeare in Love went on to become a critical and box office hit, winning seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.The film featured an ensemble cast such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Imelda Staunton, Tom Wilkinson, Simon Callow, and Jim Carter.'[He] was wrong about that one,’ Affleck reflected, noting that Willis ‘hadn’t read the script, in all fairness,’ as if to mean that his co-star was just uninformed. Ben Affleck spoke about the time Bruce Willis advised him not to do Shakespeare in Love – unsolicited advice that he thankfully ignored – during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with host Josh Horowitz. Source: Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz/YouTube ‘He was like, ‘Man, don’t go do that Shakespeare movie, man. You don’t wanna do that movie,” Affleck recalled Willis telling him on the set of their sci-fi film Armageddon. Above, Willis and Affleck in 2000 in New York CityThat’s not the only advice Willis, 17 years his senior, doled out to the younger actor. He also criticized Affleck for his naturally high voice.’Bruce Willis once turned to me and was like, ‘Your voice is too high,” Affleck said. ‘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?”Affleck remembered the Die Hard actor just told him, ‘You don’t wanna sound like that, man! I’m helping you out!’The Oscar winner, who scooped up Best Original Screenplay for co-writing Good Will Hunting with his friend Matt Damon and Best Picture for Argo, thinks highly of Willis, 71.Affleck called him ‘the sweetest guy in the world. I love Bruce, and he really was giving me a tip.’Willis’ family announced his retirement from acting in March 2022, following a diagnosis of aphasia, which was later updated to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in February 2023.Affleck’s words come after he hailed ex-wife Jennifer Garner as a ‘spectacular’ mother of their children, Violet, 20, Finn, 17, and Samuel, 14, while poking fun about his own parenting skills.During an appearance on Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, Affleck – who was married to Garner between 2005 and 2018 – explained: ‘Their mom is spectacular, and it always makes me feel like I’m coming up a little short.’ ‘He was wrong about that one,’ Affleck said, as 1998’s Shakespeare in Love went on to become a critical and box office hit, winning seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. Above, Affleck in the role of actor Ned Alleyn in Shakespeare in Love Willis also criticized Affleck for his naturally high voice, telling him, according to Affleck: ‘Your voice is too high.’ Above, Willis and Affleck in a still from the 1998 film Armageddon Affleck called the Die Hard actor ‘the sweetest guy in the world. I love Bruce, and he really was giving me a tip.’ Above, Willis and Affleck in 2000He joked that he tells his kids that he’s ‘doing about 75 percent as good as [their] mom.’They’re like, ‘Maybe 40 percent.’ I’m maxing out. Woo, B+!’In spite of their break-up, he’s retained huge respect for Garner and her parenting skills.’I respect her. I think the most important thing is having that mutual respect — being able to get along with that person,’ he shared.Earlier this year, Garner also heaped praise on Affleck, describing her ex-husband as an ‘incredible co-parent.”My kids are a little bigger [now]. Their dad… has become this incredible co-parent,’ she told Entertainment Weekly in July.’He’s wonderful. He takes care of them. He’s a great partner in that way. And that’s very freeing.’In a separate interview, Affleck also described divorce as an ‘excruciatingly painful’ experience. Shakespeare in Love featured an ensemble cast such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Imelda Staunton, Tom Wilkinson, Simon Callow, and Jim Carter Willis’ family announced his retirement from acting in March 2022, following a diagnosis of aphasia, which was later updated to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in February 2023. Above, Willis in 2020 in Los Angeles’I know there’s a tendency to watch actors – particularly when you have a lot of things you associate with the actor, that’s sort of our baggage — and sort of project those things onto them,’ he told USA Today.’The truth is, really, it’s not as correlative as you would think, except for the sense that you’ve got to have lived life to be able to relive it authentically.’The circumstances of divorce with children is facing something that’s excruciatingly painful. People can identify with that if they’ve been through it. And as an actor, it’s your job to find something that” related to that.’Affleck added: ‘Weirdly, as an actor, if you actually think about the exact moments that correlate to the exact thing, it’s too literal, and it sort of doesn’t work.’