Interview: Megan Fox, Michael Bay and Transformers Cast
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Published: Thursday, 25 June 2009 13:10
- Written by Lupe Haas
Michael Bay has no hidden agenda when it comes to making a summer blockbuster. And when it came to facing a room full of journalists including CineMovie eager to find out the meaning behind “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Bay only had to remind us “it’s summer fun.”
Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunn, and newcomer Ramon Rodriguez joined the seasoned blockbuster director (The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys) for the Q&A at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Noticeably absent was the star of the film Shia LaBeouf who was making an appearance on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien at Universal Studios. 
As you would guess, most of the questions were directed to media darling Megan Fox and the one director critics love to attack, Michael Bay.
Q: Michael, in the movie, you destroy national monuments like the Egyptian pyramids and the Smithsonian Museum. Did you have any trepidations about it?
Michael: It’s called summer fun. It’s a robot movie.
Q: Megan, do you get a choose what you wear in the movie? And do you have those moments where you’re asking yourself why you have to wear something?
Megan: Yes, I have those moments on a daily basis. I don’t get to pick my outfits. I remember Mike auditioning Ramon and some other men in his office and I had to go in…
Michael: Two young guys.
Megan: No, it was Shia, Ramon two other actors, and you (Michael). I had to come in and try 18 different outfits; a white tight jeans, pink belly shirt, and like motorcycle boots. And Mike was selecting them in the process…
Michael: It’s called multi-tasking.
Megan: But I have to say he clearly has an eye for what should be and should not be in the movie.
Q: Do you see your character as the sex symbol of Transformers? 
Megan: I just saw it a few days ago when we were at the London premiere. I usually don’t watch myself. I don’t watch myself in playback, nor in stills. I have a phobia of it. I basically shot an entire glass of champagne so I can get through the sitting of it and I was really, really, pleasantly surprised. Half way through I was overcome with genuine emotion and wanted to hug Michael in gratitude.
The character is sexy but women in movies are generally sexy especially in Michael’s movies and if it’s part of the formula…
Michael: If you look at the movie, we got that first (sexy) shot out in the beginning for the young boys and moved on. The rest of the movie is not about sexy.
Josh: Tyrese offered to introduce himself in the second film by appearing shirtless in a car wash scene on Optimus. But Michael didn’t go for it.
Michael: Yeah, no I didn’t
Q: Is the IMAX version different than the film in regular theaters.
Michael: The IMAX version is 2 hours and 20 minutes exactly. The IMAX cut has a minute more of footage. It’s got some more fighting footage that takes place in the forest with Devastator.
Q: In the film, Josh throws out the National Security Advisor from a military plane. Is there any kind of message there regarding our current Security Advisor under Obama?
Michael: Remember, summer fun by the way.
Q: Michael how did you find out about Shia’s car accident that injured his hand during production of this movie?
Michael: I read it on CNN online and said this can’t be true. I called my line producer Ian Bryce and he goes ‘it’s true.’ I’m like ‘Oh, my god!’ He said let’s shut down and I was ‘we can’t shut down.’ When you have a train going, it’s so expensive to shut a picture like this down.
We had an action scene that Monday in the library. I said let’s go for it and use Vlad the stuntman and cover as much stuff as we can. Tuesday we shut down and then we had to mix and match scenes that we can shoot without him. We didn’t know how long he would be down.
Immediately I had them find the best people in the world to make a special cast that has never been made with a caviler fingers, very thin, so you can photograph it. The problem was that if he jammed his fingers, he would lose his fingers forever. Experts of the world came up with the design. We were very lucky because we had shot a lot of the beginning of the movie.
Megan: Everyone’s very lucky for Shia’s level of commitment to this movie because he showed up with his injury and acted as if he didn’t have an injury and
went balls to the wall. He did things that were not safe for him to do but he wanted this film to be real as possible.Michael: We’d have arguments. He would take his cast off and I said ‘no put that cast back on’ and he said ‘no I’m fine.” We were trying to protect that hand.
Josh: Remember when he cut his eye and he wanted to come back to work that day.
Michael: Yeah!
Shia wasn’t the only one suffering through painful injuries. The new sidekick in the Transformers movie sequel, Ramon Rodriguez (plays Leonardo Ponce Spitz) popped his shoulder during an action scene.
Ramon: Yeah, I popped a shoulder.
Michael: You didn’t tell me that.
Ramon: I didn’t want to get you worried.
Michael: You want to sue me?
Ramon: No. So were shooting the Devastator scene when I’m sucking on sand and had to hold on to a pole. Michael Bay had this great idea to bring out these two fans that blow 100 mph each and put them right in front of my face. I’ve got sand, soot, and dirt blowing into my face and two guys behind me with wires attached to my ankles pulling me. Not enough yet – we have two cars flipping over my head which were attached to a hydraulic crane -- flipped inches above my head. So the guys were yanking the cable on my ankles and in one of the takes, my shoulder popped out and we continued rolling…
Michael: That’s the shot we used.
Ramon: Thank you, Michael.
Tyrese: I sprained my left pinky toe.
Q: Michael, in the film, you have dozens of shots of military planes flying over and taking off aircraft carriers. Do you use stock footage or shoot all the footage yourself?
Michael: I don’t like using stock footage. All that stuff was shot by us. We had 
incredible access from the military which is very rare. They flew 100 feet over our set. There were 6 F16 out doing missions and we timed their mission for when we wanted them to come over our set four times and timed explosions down below.
Q: What was the budget on this film?
Michael: My budget was $200 million but I came under at $195 million. I put the rest into effects. I don’t carry a second unit with me and shoot 12 hour days.
And we’re sure Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will have no problem doubling their budget when the film transforms into a mega hit at the box office this summer season.
