Another day, another Michael Bay internet brawl. Bay of course is the director of the current Transformers franchise, and he’s also famous for his less than diplomatic ways.
He’s gotten into quite a few public brawls like this, including with Megan Fox, who compared him to Hitler, with Bruce Willis about his on-set yelling and ego (Willis isn’t exactly Mr. Humility himself), the fans over his upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot plans, and more.
Now according to the Hollywood Reporter and Collider, he’s calling out Hugo Weaving, who we know from The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and the upcoming Cloud Atlas. Weaving was the voice of Megatron, and he told Collider the role was “meaningless. 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.” He also said he never met Bay, and they only communicated via Skype.
Bay of course wasn’t happy about this, and as much as he dishes it out, he’s always had a problem with taking it, so he took to the web to voice his displeasure. His opening salvo was, “Do you ever get sick of actors that make $15 million a picture, or even $200,000 for voiceover work that 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 isn’t ‘artistic enough’ or ‘fulfilling enough?’”
As much as Bay sounds like a petulant brat over all this, I do empathize with one point he made during his rant: “Be happy you even have a job – let alone a job that pays you more than 98% of people in America.”
After venting his spleen, Bay then erased the page from his website, but The Hollywood Reporter got a screenshot of it, which it dutifully posted. (Guess Bay’s not familiar with Google’s ability to keep his inflammatory post alive either).
There’s sure to be more Bay rants like this to come, and they won’t put a dent in the box office for Transformers 4. Bay’s employees and fans by now certainly know what to expect, and it’s doubtful he’ll ever be housebroken.
