Michael Bay

The name or term "Michael" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Michael (disambiguation).

"I say Devastator. DE-VAS-TA-TOR!"

Michael Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is the director of DreamWorks' Transformers live-action movies. Bay has directed other blockbuster action films, such as Bad Boys, The Rock, and Armageddon. He also directed that "Aaron Burr!" milk commercial.

Bay, as presented in various documentary segments, takes an extremely active, hands-on approach to the filming of his movies, carefully orchestrating complex effects sequences, and sometimes getting behind the camera lens himself. He's apparently a little more passive in regards to things like scripting and character development. Revenge of the Fallen began development without a full-fledged script, and while Bay conceived of the characters of the Twins, he left their actual characterization up to the voice actors who portrayed them.

Michael Bay's auditioning process for leading ladies is notoriously rigorous and scrutinizing. Examples of the criteria necessary to obtain employment from Bay include: How well the actress can wash his Ferrari while he films them in private and how well the actress screen-tests while wearing see-through lingerie.

At times, other people involved with Bay's films have claimed to be Bay himself. It is not known if they are attempting to protect him from the Romans or not.

He demands that things be AWESOME. And explode. Because explosions are awesome.

Depicted: Awesomeness.

Films directed

• Transformers
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Transformers: Age of Extinction

Creative collaboration

• Transformers: The Ride – 3D

Fiction

Titan Magazines

Michael Bay produces documentary films about the Transformers. His first one was a shockingly biased piece of Autobot propaganda, and the Decepticons would like to have a polite chat about it. #13's Star Screams

Toys

This was AWESOME

• "BayBot," a joking representation of Bay in toy form, was "advertised" in an Easter egg on the Transformers DVD. The toy is an Alternators Battle Ravage with a humanoid head and Autobot insignia. And puppies. It's quite disturbing, actually. The toy was created by Hasbro's Transformers design team for Bay, but he had no idea that Paramount had included it as an Easter egg joke.

Merchandise

WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE?

• Michael Bay appeared as a lavender M&M in a cross-promotional poster.

Convention appearances

• Bay appeared at the BotCon 2009 Paramount Party night, to screen clips from Revenge of the Fallen.
• Bay also appeared at the Transformers Hall of Fame celebration at BotCon 2011, accepting his award for being inducted, plus he brought along a long "teaser" of scenes from the not-yet-released Dark of the Moon.

Quotes

Remember the heart and the magic!Michael Bay's catchphrase regarding Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, A very short interview on E! Online, October 2007

I don't even know how you spend that much money on a movie.Michael Bay on the budgets for other 2007 summer blockbusters, Transformers movie DVD audio commentary.

We don’t build $3 million sets and then the director walks in and says, “F*** it, I’m not going to use that set.” The stories I hear from my crew members, of waste on other pictures, of directors shooting a six— or eight-hour day, it’s just staggering.Michael Bay on budget again, Interview with Variety

And someone could come in here and screw it up, you know?Michael Bay on Transformers 4, Interview with Huffington Post

Explosions as entertainment. I'll never understand you humans.Blades, "Rescue Boy"

Do you ever get sick of actors that make $15 million a picture, or even $200,000 for voiceover work that took a brisk one hour and 43 minutes to complete, and then complain about their jobs? With all the problems facing our world today, do these grumbling thespians really think people reading the news actually care about trivial complaints that their job wasn’t “artistic enough” or “fulfilling enough”?Michael Bay on actor Hugo Weaving, 2012 Collider interview

Well, that’s Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she’s 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, “Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want. I got it.” ...Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in “Transformers.”Michael Bay on actress Megan Fox, 2009 Wall Street Journal interview

Notes

• When the production required a fictional tail serial number to paint on the real MH-53 Pave Low helicopters representing Blackout, Bay decided to use the tail number from his own personal Gulfstream Aerospace G-1159A jet, 4500X. In 2010, Bay used this jet to fly personnel in and out of Haiti following the huge earthquake there.
• A second Bay Easter Egg appeared in Revenge of the Fallen: the freighter ship carrying a group of Constructicons is named Bayos, a nickname for the generally chaotic and destructive nature of Bay's films.
• During a television interview on June 13th, 2007 in Australia on the Ten Network's news hour, Bay stated that Hugo Weaving had recorded his lines as Megatron in Australia while Bay directed him from the U.S. using Apple iChat, and thus, he had never actually met the actor.
• Susan Bay, a relative of Michael Bay, is married to famed Star Trek actor (and the original voice of Generation 1 Galvatron) Leonard Nimoy, and apparently it was due to their substantial contributions to the Griffith Observatory that Michael was allowed to film Transformers at that location. Apparently, Nimoy was even considered to provide the voice for The Fallen, but Bay felt uncomfortable asking him to do it for such a small wage. Nimoy himself was apparently much more enthusiastic about being involved in Transformers again. It all worked out for the third film though, in which Nimoy played Sentinel Prime.
• According to Bay, the human bystander that Megatron flicks aside during the Mission City sequence was Bay himself (one assumes he means it is a CGI digital double made in his appearance). This 'cameo' replaces one he filmed where he was the driver of the silver Mercedes-Benz ML320 that Megatron tosses aside.
• Two of Michael Bay's dogs are linked to Transformers. One, Mason, is the dog Miles is seen giving a bath to during the film. A new puppy he got while working on the film was named Bonecrusher. No word yet on what, if anything, the dog hates. Bonecrusher subsequently got a role in Revenge of the Fallen as himself.
• He starred in a Verizon FiOS commercial in which he had an awesome pussy cat (a tiger), an awesome grill (with a life-size Bumblebee, also awesome), and an awesome pool. Typically, he had a switch to blow something up, which he did...three times. The cat was not blown up (which was fortunate), but all three explosions were AWESOME.
• According to an interview with Forbes, Bay receives an 8% cut of royalties from sales of Transformers movie toys and merchandise.
• For Revenge of the Fallen, Bay earned himself an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the "biggest explosion on film with actors present". Now if that ain't AWESOME.
• He dissed the Fallen as "kind of a **** character" to USA Today. Hasbro probably doesn't think that's AWESOME.

Beef with the cast

Many who have worked with Bay haven't had the kindest things to say about him after the fact. Bay, in turn, doesn't pull his punches when responding...

• During the publicity in the lead up to the release of Revenge of the Fallen and articles thereafter, there has been a war of words between Megan Fox and Bay. Fox has commented negatively on the Transformers sequel, claiming that it was "not a movie about acting" and she spends most of the time "running or screaming, or both"; furthermore, that she "still didn't know what was happening" in the film despite appearing in it and having read the script, and anyone who understood the movie had to be a "genius". Bay, in return, condescendingly remarked that Fox "says some very ridiculous things" and "still has a lot of growing to do". In early September 2009, Fox stated in Wonderland magazine that Bay had a Hitler-like dictator persona on set, and off the set was very socially awkward in an otherwise warm review of the man. Evidently having not read the entire interview, three members of "Bay's crew" anonymously responded in an open letter praising Bay and derogatorily citing the difficulty in working with Fox. The letter was quickly removed and Michael Bay himself soon responded, saying he doesn't condone either the letter or Fox's outlandish comments, but noted her "crazy quips" was part of her "crazy charm", and since they had a good relationship, he expects further outrageous comments from Fox in the lead up to Transformers 3.

• After completing his contractual three film obligation to the Transformers franchise, Hugo Weaving had nothing nice to say about the experience. In an October, 2012 interview with the Herald Sun, he referred to his part in the series as "meaningless" and "pathetic", and expressed a profound lack of professional satisfaction from the whole ordeal. Michael Bay fired back in an interview with Collider, calling Weaving a "whiner" and claiming he lacked "integrity", then going on to suggest Weaving donate his millions of dollars to a charity for elephants.

This page has gone on too long without wanton destruction. YOU'RE WELCOME.

External links

• Hall of Fame video
• Michael Bay on the Internet Movie Database
• Official website