Man, Michael Bay is an asshole.
He has directed such wonderful works of cinema such as the first and second Transformers, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor...I'll stop there. I never really thought about him much, natch (see above list). But lately, I keep hearing about total asshole things that he's saying.
Megan Fox made a comment about how the Transformers movies are not about acting:
"Working with Michael Bay is not about an acting experience...I don't want to blow smoke up people's ass. People are well aware that this is not a movie about acting. And once you realize that, it becomes almost fun because you can be in the moment and go, 'All right, I know that when he calls Action! I'm either going to be running or screaming, or both."
Can you say the girl is wrong? She's even willing to insult herself to make that statement.
And then comes Michael Bay's response:
"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.” But I 100% disagree with her. Nick Cage wasn’t a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in Armageddon. Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before he did Transformers—and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from Bad Boys. Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in Transformers. I like to think that I’ve had some luck in building actors’ careers with my films."
Wow. First, I can't believe he's so hyper-defensive about the acting (or lack thereof) in THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIES! What next? Is he going to complain about how they were robbed for being shut out of the Oscar nominations?!? Second, he single-handedly started all these celebrities' careers? And they would be nothing without him? Wow. Just wow.
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you know what's also awesome? just because he worked with all these actors in these movies (and thus was responsible for their careers...), doesn't mean that their acting in these movies was strong! he makes big flashy (and sucky) movies that give people a name, but not necessarily the best reputation. ben affleck, for one, has had to do a lot of work to rebuild his rep. though gigli was partly responsible for that...
ReplyDeleteI know! Even if Shia LaBeouf is a known actor doesn't mean he's necessarily a good one or that he's known for his deep acting abilities. So it's not like Michael Bay "delivered" these amazing gifts to us. Once again, you're not helping your case that your movies are all about the acting.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, I think he's being a little overzealous in his "discoveries". Most of the people he named had made a name for themselves pre-Michael Bay. For example, Nicolas Cage was already "discovered" way before Michael Bay. He had already been in a lot of movies and even had leading roles. He had been in Francis Ford Coppola movies (it sure helps when he's your uncle -- if anyone started his career it was his uncle, not Michael Bay), a Cohen brothers movie, and he played a big role in an Oscar-winning film.
And some actors got to be big-deal actors not because of him, but despite him. Like Will Smith. No one was like "Damn, that Will Smith in Bad Boys...he's going to be something big and taken serious!" It wasn't until he did other stuff that he got bigger. So it certainly wasn't thanks to Michael Bay.
And before Ben Affleck was in Armageddon, he was in (and co-wrote the screenplay for) Good Will Hunting (which won 2 Oscars). That gave him credibility, Armageddon did not.
Once again, God, that Michael Bay is an asshole.