Michael Bay's Tardiness Started A Betting Pool Between Transformers' Cast And Crew
Some people just have a different sense of time than others. You know that friend who is always late to every meetup? As it turns out, this friend has something in common with "Transformers" franchise director Michael Bay, according to a behind-the-scenes featurette about the 2009 film, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
Many actors and crew who have worked with Bay on the "Transformers" movies have spoken about how he can be tough on set, and yet they keep coming back to work with him. In fact, in a 2016 IGN article, Josh Duhamel, who has been in a number of the films, spoke about how "80% of this crew was there from the beginning [the first film was released in 2007], from the very first movie. [...] People can say what they want about him, but these people love him. They hate him at times, but they also love him."
One of the things that Bay was known for on the set of "Revenge of the Fallen," which was the second film in the franchise, is his chronic lateness. It was so bad that the cast took bets on when he would show up to set.
There is a stats board and everything
In the Behind the Movies featurette, star Shia LaBeouf said that they "were taking overs and unders on whether [Michael Bay would] show up on time, because it was about two hours you were waiting around, you know, so we started betting on it, and it became like our fantasy football whether he'd show up on time."
While that might sound unprofessional, it's often hard to know what jobs a director is getting done outside of just directing actors. Still, it appears that the cast and crew had fun with it. Chris Castaldi, who was the second assistant director, explained from the set:
"This is an official gambling pool; over the course of this week, we've had around an 8:30 crew call, and Michael has arrived on average at 9:25. So the Vegas odds put the over-under at 9:25. Now, he is driving himself today, okay, that doesn't happen, so maybe he gets lost, not sure. Anyways, so that's the over-under; we have about 20 people bet, including Shia, who bet 10:30, that's two hours behind. Megan Fox, 10:10, that's quite behind. And I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said he's gonna be right on time at 8:30, clearly wrong. Anyway, winner takes all, official Blackberry time goes, and we have some entrance music for him when he arrives, Hail to the Chief."
As you can see from the pic, there was actually a board for it. According to LaBeouf, "Mike didn't like that at all." Whatever you think of Bay's lateness, it's worked for him, as you can see from the fact that the franchise is still going strong, even though he's not directing them these days.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is currently in theaters.