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Michael Bay responds to Hugo Weaving
- Thread starter Anticitizen One
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"Michael Bay talks to me on the phone. I've never met him. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn't seen the first one. I still didn't really know who the chracters were and I didn't know what anything was. It's a voice job, for sure, and people assume I've spent my life working on it, but I really know so little about it."
This was snippit from 2010 interview and even before and after that he expressed same feelings towards his role. So why this is only now bothering people?
This was snippit from 2010 interview and even before and after that he expressed same feelings towards his role. So why this is only now bothering people?
Dreams-Visions
Member
because people don't read. or, they just read the bolded.
Devolution
Member
It does kind of remind me of Romney pulling the "well what about your pension" on Obama at the debate. If you're fabulously rich calling out others on their pensions or salaries screams awkward.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I reckon musical performances (the common kind) tend to have at least the people have the heart in it. Hell, I think high school performances have its members giving it in their performances.
It's not about the quality he's talking about btw - it's how he's giving his, shall we say, "heart" in the performance.
Unknown Soldier
Member
I would vote for Michael Bay over Mitt Romney. Maybe the Republicans should have gotten Bay to run instead.
wickedcapedkid
Member
Michael Bay is the one who chose to do a cold-reading for the character's lines. He could've worked personally with all his voice-actors and helped direct them to more accurately portray the characters in his vision, but he chose not to. Hugo Weaving sounds like he was busy and actually only agreed to do the job solely BECAUSE it was a 2-hour reading gig for $200,000, otherwise he probably would've been too busy to do it and could've cared even less. Seems like he was just honest about the situation.
And, to conclude this argument: This was the Transformers movie. It's just a fluffy action flick. If you're an actor and you choose to do this movie, everyone knows you're doing it for money, not artistic merit or academy-recognition.
And, to conclude this argument: This was the Transformers movie. It's just a fluffy action flick. If you're an actor and you choose to do this movie, everyone knows you're doing it for money, not artistic merit or academy-recognition.
maniac-kun
Member
I agree with Bay on this one.
scar tissue
Banned
I sort of dislike Bay, but he has my respect for the suggestion of donating to an Elephant Rescue and matching any donations.
A Link to the Past
Banned
Michael Bay's full of shit. Perhaps the guy's being a little too whiny, but at what point is Bay beyond the point where someone can say "man, he's a really lazy director in a lot of ways"?
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
What disgust? He just said he wasn't especially invested in the movies. He even went to great lengths to qualify the statement by saying that he wasn't coming down on anyone or the movie itself, just that the situation was atypical for him.
You make it out like he was saying, "Oooohhh.... Those sack of shit movies. Yeah, they were pretty dumbass. I totally phoned it in and felt like a cheap whore for even talking to Bay on Skype."
Team Filler
Member
It amazes me how many people are bagging on Weaving in this thread. The guy didn't say anything particularly negative or hypocritical, and also didn't really say anything that hasn't been said in various ways by many actors in the past. Sometimes a job is a personal work of pride, sometimes it's only for a paycheck, and on rare occasions it's both.
Michael Bay can set up all the strawmen he likes, but it doesn't make Weaving's opinion any less valid.
Michael Bay can set up all the strawmen he likes, but it doesn't make Weaving's opinion any less valid.
TUROK
Member
I'm talking about this.
He doesn't want to do any more Marvel films and figures that if he doesn't want to do them they won't force him to.
There's something about this thread that is fucking with people's reading comprehension.
Nobody was saying that it's completely black or white. But the movies have been so successful on their own and in empowering the Transformers brand as a whole that I'm fairly certain in saying that overall Transformers fans are happy.
It's disrespectful because he was okay with having a fairly easy job for more money than the majority of Americans make in a single year but after the job is over he says that he didn't care about it and it was meaningless for him. A lot of hard work and effort by a lot of people went into making the movies and a statement like that not only belittles those efforts but says to the fans that it was beneath him as an actor. If that's his personal belief that's fine, everyone is entitled to that but to come out in an interview and make a public statement is extremely tacky and unprofessional. You also seemed to ignore my point that in any other kind of industry making a statement like this is a good way of not getting hired by other companies, do you disagree with that? This is not only related to his Transformers comment but in addition to his statements last week that sound awfully similar in regards to reprising his role as Red Skull for potential future Marvel movies, which he actually signed a legally binding contract in order to get more money. What do you think that says of him as a person?
And again this all comes down to actively engaging the fanbase. Peter Cullen would never make a statement like that because he realizes and understands how important his role is to the fans. He's actually quite humble and grateful for his role in the franchise in the past and having the opportunity to reprise that role in the present, which is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. It's not like he knew about how huge it was back in the day either, it wasn't until years after the animated movie came out and he made an appearance at a convention that he realized how important he was to a large group of people. During the show's run I doubt he thought it was anything more than paycheck but I doubt he would've ever made comments about working on a kids show whose sole purpose was to sell toys. While Hugo Weaving is no where near the level of Peter Cullen, there was a group that enjoyed his contribution and part in the franchise however small it was.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Who would want to be typecast into a nerd movie villain role?
Yeah, people keep saying Bay makes sense. It's mind blowing.
Even if you don't like the movies, there are more non-movie related Transformers toys, comics and video games than there has been since forever. I don't even know how you could argue the fact that the brand is bigger than it was since G1.
Perhaps only negatives get reported.
TUROK
Member
Even if you hate the movies, you'd be blind to ignore that the movies have ushered in a resurgence in popularity for them, got the toys to be popular again, enabled awesome games like War for Cybertron to be greenlit, and helped Transformers Prime see the light of day.
Well Hugo is reprising his role as Elrond so for now it seems the role wasn't beneath him as an actor. Give it a few years after the Hobbit trilogy was out and maybe he'll say something. Doubt he'd ever say anything about his work as Agent Smith in the Matrix movies but it'd be interesting to see what he would have to say.
Jawmuncher
Member
The real crime here was Megatron being an absolute bitch in all 3 of the movies.
Obviously the movies are terrible but I can't even leave them saying well at least megatron was cool, because he never did anything cool.
Obviously the movies are terrible but I can't even leave them saying well at least megatron was cool, because he never did anything cool.
TUROK
Member
Unfounded hearsay. It could have, or it couldn't have.
You don't have to thank him for anything. Hell, you're free to start up a blog and complain about the movies if you are inclined to do so.
It's absurd to think that there's no one else in all of Hollywood who could have remade Transformers and brought attention back to it.
Why would I do that? For the most part I ignore their existence. But to say that people have to somehow agree that Bay empowered Transformers by making shitty racist, sexist, and overall insulting crap is asking too much.
Why would I do that? For the most part I ignore their existence. But to say that people have to somehow agree that Bay empowered Transformers by making shitty racist, sexist, and overall insulting crap is asking too much.
He also reprised Megatron twice...
Where did anyone say that nobody other than Bay couldn't have achieved it? (Btw nice stealth edit on that part.) It's indisputable fact that Michael Bay's involvement with the Transformers movies brought the franchise back into cultural significance since the 80's. Prior to the movies Transformers had some moderate success but ultimately a niche audience throughout Beast Wars, Beast Machines and the Unicron Trilogy. Despite the quality of the movies themselves they have made Transformers more popular than before. I don't understand why you can't look past your own opinion on how he made the movies and see how much it has benefited the Transformers brand and as a direct result, the fans.
Meh I don't care that Transformers was light hearted, messy, idiotic crap. Often time the first effort in a film franchise for these sorts of things is (i.e, Batman and a whole host of Super Hero movies). Just leaves more to look forward to later down the line when they do a darker more realistic re-boot of it.
I do also somewhat agree with Bay on this one. He took the role, got paid handsomely, and is now trashing it as if Transformers was ever going to be anything other than pop corn trash under Bay, which is a tad disrespectful, and makes him seem ill prepared or ignorant. If you didn't know about the role, well that's your fault. Do your research before you take on the role, otherwise don't rag on about miniscule shit afterwards, especially when it was little effort and as Bay said, an opportunity millions would have loved to have.
I do also somewhat agree with Bay on this one. He took the role, got paid handsomely, and is now trashing it as if Transformers was ever going to be anything other than pop corn trash under Bay, which is a tad disrespectful, and makes him seem ill prepared or ignorant. If you didn't know about the role, well that's your fault. Do your research before you take on the role, otherwise don't rag on about miniscule shit afterwards, especially when it was little effort and as Bay said, an opportunity millions would have loved to have.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
He is not thrashing anything.
wtf are people saying that
If anything I am surprised people are siding more towards Bay because he made the typical ignorant comment between the two persons.
Yeah this.
Apparently not even praising and being indifferent to stuff is considered negativity.
wtf are people saying that
If anything I am surprised people are siding more towards Bay because he made the typical ignorant comment between the two persons.
Yeah this.
Apparently not even praising and being indifferent to stuff is considered negativity.
Stealth edit? I added the first paragraph in about 3 seconds after I made the post because I forgot to say it. Not really sure what you're accusing me of there.
Again, I'm under no obligation to thank him for it, nor does my fandom of Transformers mean that I think that they have to keep making new stuff in it, let alone that Michael Bay should be lauded for it when what he puts out isn't so much bad as just plain offensive.
And I'm just expressing my opinion, you're the one who keeps telling me what I owe Michael Bay. Whatever positive side effects may have come about from his films doesn't change that I think he's a leach on it.
[and yes, I edited this post seconds after I posted it too. I promise it was only to expand on thoughts and not to try to trap you or something ridiculous like that.]
Devolution
Member
Transformers fucking blows. And I'm tired of the music/slow panning on every scene so you know something epic is going to happen. Way to shove shit down my throat Bay.
I don't care that you edited your post, that part was joking, I should have communicated that better.
Can you actually point out where I said you should thank Bay for it? All I said was that the end result of the Bayformers was that Transformers is a stronger brand.
And are you even fan of Transformers? I'm genuinely curious because even aside from the quality of the movies, the surge of G1 inspired toys like the Classics/Universe/Generations and especially the Masterpiece line is enough to make most Transformers fans happy. The fact that we got two pretty good non-Bayformers video games in the WFC line is awesome and if anything it gave Hasbro/Takara incentive to move away from the cheesy, hokey and silly nature of the Unicron trilogy and Transformers Animated and pushed them towards Transformers Prime, which seems to have generally favorable praise from the community.
not_so_special
Banned
michael bay gets pretty mad when someone talks about transformers and tell the fucking truth,these are dumb movies made to get quick cash
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
Nothing Weaving said comes off particularly aggressive or mean spirited. Weird response.
Maybe he realized he misinterpreted the intent there (seemingly Hugo Weaving regretting how he handled the role more than anything else) or at least realized that was way more likely to cause a shitstorm that Weaving's comments alone.
... I honestly can not understand siding with Michael Bay here. Maybe if we were talking about someone being completely venomous about their role, but it seems the only thing Hugo Weaving's guilty of is being extremely frank, not even condemning anyone involved. The worst I can think of is that it may've ended up inadvertently pulling back the curtains on how much those involved with REALLY cared about making the movies.
If you don't like being fed bullshit PR, you should be applauding what Weaving said. It's a refreshingly honest statement about his performance that had no emotion attached to try and draw the reader to form a conclusion about anything other than Weaving's experience.
Unfortunately in reality most people don't really want to know the "truth", they want the happy polished statement because that's what they've come to expect to hear. Anything that deviates from that just gives them something to complain about even if it's intellectually honest. Ignorance is bliss, etc.
Unfortunately in reality most people don't really want to know the "truth", they want the happy polished statement because that's what they've come to expect to hear. Anything that deviates from that just gives them something to complain about even if it's intellectually honest. Ignorance is bliss, etc.
I was just about to give Bay some slack, but this made too much sense.
Sorry Michael.
WTF does economy have to do with anything? It's just as stupid as Bay's "problems facing our world today".
According to this logic, nobody can ever complain about anything unless you're a homeless person living in extreme poverty in a 3rd world country.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I guess the internet likes to always side to the person who is "sticking up to the man" (or in this case, thespians), even though that's pretty hilarious considering Michael Bay is one of the "man".
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
I can see both sides of this one.. Weaving was just being honest and no matter how well paid he was that shouldn't mean he has to lie about it being a meaningful and rewarding job for him when it wasn't.
In Bay's defence I'm sure he worked very hard on the movie(s) -they are massive logistical undertakings if nothing else- and so it's understandable that he'd feel somewhat defensive about it especially given that there is inarguably a large audience for them. I'm sure that from his point of view, doing 3 Transformers movies wasn't his creative dream-job either, yet he's being professional enough not to kvetch about it.
In Bay's defence I'm sure he worked very hard on the movie(s) -they are massive logistical undertakings if nothing else- and so it's understandable that he'd feel somewhat defensive about it especially given that there is inarguably a large audience for them. I'm sure that from his point of view, doing 3 Transformers movies wasn't his creative dream-job either, yet he's being professional enough not to kvetch about it.
Contracts.
WrenchNinja
Member
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