For a guy who once said “I don’t change my style for anyone. Pussies do that.” Michael Bay sure seems to get hurt little feelings any time one of his actors points out that Transformers has all the cultural value of those Olestra chips that made your asshole leak. Or as we in the business call it, “acknowledging the obvious.” Most recently, it was Hugo Weaving, who provided the voice of Megatron, who said, when asked by Collider if he’d been contacted by Michael Bay about the next Transformers movie:
“No. That’s a weird job for me because it honestly was a two-hour voice job, initially. I was doing a play and I actually didn’t have time, anyway. It was one of the only things I’ve ever done where I had no knowledge of it, I didn’t care about it, I didn’t think about it. They wanted me to do it. In one way, I regret that bit. I don’t regret doing it, but I very rarely do something if it’s meaningless. It was meaningless to me, honestly. I don’t mean that in any nasty way. I did it. It was a two-hour voice job, while I was doing other things. Of course, it’s a massive film that’s made masses of money. I just happened to be the voice of one of the iconic villainous characters. But, my link to that and to Michael Bay is so minimal. I have never met him. I was never on set. I’ve seen his face on Skype. I know nothing about him, really. I just went in and did it. I never read the script. I just have my lines, and I don’t know what they mean. That sounds absolutely pathetic! I’ve never done anything like that, in my life. It’s hard to say any more about it than that, really.”
Pretty diplomatic, really. He felt bad taking a big paycheck to do a movie he didn’t care much about. He still took it, but it’s not like he said Michael Bay was a black-market organ farmer or anything, he was mostly being self-deprecating. Of course, Michael Bay didn’t see it that way, lashing out at unnamed h8ers on his personal website, like a baller do:
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”? I guess The Hollywood Reporter thinks so.
What happened to people who had integrity, who did a job, got paid for their hard work, and just smiled afterward? Be happy you even have a job – let alone a job that pays you more than 98% of the people in America.
I have a wonderful idea for all those whiners: They can give their “unhappy job money” to a wonderful Elephant Rescue. It’s the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Africa. I will match the funds they donate.
Michael Bay
I would argue “integrity” involves putting out a product you actually believe in, not just being grateful for any job. But I can see how a person would be annoyed if someone agrees to a job only to complain about it afterwards – integrity would be not taking that job in the first place, even though you reeeeally want that money (me, I’d record a birthday song for Hitler if they paid me $200k). But let’s not lose focus on the important things: Like that when Michael Bay thinks selfless charity, the first thing that comes to mind is rescuing elephants. Not cancer kids, not battered women or clean drinking water, elephants. “You don’t like it, bro, you can go rescue an elephant!”
Poor Michael Bay. I guess it’s true what they say, if you want a friend in Hollywood, buy yourself a yacht full of Bengal tigers.
[hat tip: CinemaBlend]