Michael Bay Melts Down On Stage While Promoting Transformers: Age Of Extinction
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Much like his movies, Michael Bay is larger than life. He has a big personality and an ego that rivals that of James Cameron’s, so it’s surprising to see him experience an awkward and all-too-human moment. But that’s precisely what happened on stage at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 48-year-old director joined Samsung Executive Vice President Joe Stinziano to introduce the South Korean-based electronic company’s first 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV (gimmie!). It seems that Bay doesn’t get along with teleprompters because the action auteur melted down in front of hundreds of convention attendees. Unable to “wing it,” Bay eventually left the stage altogether, leaving Joe Stinziano to carry on with the presentation alone.
The video above is super embarrassing and hard to watch, but it just goes to show that Bay’s badass persona can be cracked. The Transformers director immediately took to his personal website to address what happened with the teleprompter and why he stormed off the stage. Bay writes:
Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES — I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down — then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.
But I’m doing a special curved screen experience with Samsung and Transformers 4 footage that will be traveling around the world.
Michael
I really feel for Bay. This is probably the most human moment in his long career. While the director does make some bad movies — Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Pearl Harbor spring to mind — he’s also one of the few directors in Hollywood who has truly changed the action genre, for better or worse. It’s true that this moment was embarrassing, but it only shows that Bay isn’t quick on his feet when it comes to public speaking; nothing more, nothing less.
Bay was, after all, promoting his new movie Transformers: Age of Extinction while onstage during CES. Paramount Pictures and Samsung have partnered up to show off footage from Age of Extinction on Samsung’s new Ultra HD TV in a traveling tour around the world. Hopefully, the footage isn’t as awkward as Michael Bay’s appearance at CES.
Transformers 4 takes place four years after the events of Dark of the Moon and centers on an inventor named Cade, his teenage daughter Tessa, and her boyfriend Shane, as they “discover a buried Transformer which sets the stage for the return of the rest of the Transformers.” The film also stars Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Stanley Tucci, Sophia Myles, T.J. Miller, Victoria Summer, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, Kelsey Grammer, and Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime.
Transformers: Age of Extinction hits theaters everywhere on June 27, 2014, in 3D and IMAX.
