Depending on how you look at it, the Transformers film franchise is either an epic cartoon saga brought to life, or the longest-running car commercial on the planet. The behind-the-scenes stories from the Transformers franchise show the actors and crew saw the series as something vastly different, compared to the director at the helm. To them, the raging war between the Autobots and Decepticons didn't make for a groundbreaking action movie, it was just a loathsome, pointless, Michael Bay hellscape.
There's no doubt Transforms was an insanely profitable action franchise, the series raked in billions of dollars, and it definitely has a loyal fan base. With all that said, there are things about the Transformers filming process that might make your skin crawl. When Michael Bay wasn't humiliating his actors by aggressively forcing them to show uncomfortable amounts of skin or ditching them in the middle of the desert, he was trashing their careers online and making them hate their life choices.
Working for Michael Bay is bound to come with a fair amount of risk. While he worked on set with Bay, Shia LaBeouf sustained multiple injuries, and was lucky to avoid several others.
Over the course of filming Transformers, LaBeouf described the work as "the most physical thing" he's ever had to do. He was battered, chased, and straight-up impaled. During his first day on set, police guard dogs pounced at him, and chased him until trainers had to tackle one of the 200 pound animals before it ripped LaBeouf to shreds. In another incident, the actor was impaled straight through the eye by a rod, directly above his retina, and he almost lost his vision.
Megan Fox Claimed Michael Bay Was A Total Dictator On Set
According to Megan Fox, Michael Bay was absolutely horrible to work with. She compared him to a dictator, going as far as to say he, “wants to be like Hitler on his sets.” Fox had enough of Bay before the filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon began, and claimed he was a complete tyrant who degraded her image for his own benefit.
During the filming of the Transformers series, Bay constantly exploited her for audience eye-candy. He even demanded she present herself sexually. If she wasn't fulfilling these requirements, he would become aggressive and cruel. Shia LaBeouf commented on the situation, stating Bay didn't have the tact or time to express commands gently like, "arch your back 70 degrees."
Shia LaBeouf Regrets Wasting His Early Acting Career On A Pointless Franchise
Fighting off hordes of robots intent on destroying the Earth sounds like the highlight of any young adult's life, but Shia LaBeouf doesn't share that sentiment. The actor absolutely hates Transformers. He's resentful he wasted even a tiny bit of his life acting for the multi-million dollar franchise.
As a young actor in his early twenties, LaBeouf was ready to take whatever Hollywood threw at him. He settled for a secure spot on the big screen, but found absolutely no value in the production of the Transformers franchise. During a screening of his own films, the actor even fell asleep. He stated, "It's very hard to keep doing what you're doing when you feel like it's the antithesis of your purpose on this planet."
The 'Transformers' Crew Attempted To Publicly Trash Megan Fox's Career
After Megan Fox had enough of Michael Bay's exploitation of her image, she spoke out about his cruel and destructive behavior on set to multiple media outlets. Bay didn't take these accusations on the chin. Shortly after she made comments regarding his dictatorial filming process, Bay fired Fox.
Bay didn't let her leave with the last word, either. Before he fired her, he posted a horrendous letter on his website in an attempt to completely trash her acting career. Addressed directly from the Transformers "crew," the letter calls her "thankless, classless, graceless, and shall we say unfriendly b*tch," and "dumb-as-a-rock" among other slurs and slashes to her character.
Michael Bay Forced Rosie Huntington-Whiteley To Walk Across The Desert Wearing Only Lingerie And Heels
When Michael Bay fired Megan Fox, the third installation of the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was ready to start production. She was quickly replaced by a model Bay had previously worked with on a Victoria's Secret commercial. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was familiar with working with sexually explicit directors. However, Bay found his own way to exploit her when he ditched her in the middle of the 100 degree California desert wearing only lingerie and heels.
When he first met the model, the first thing he asked her was "Can you walk?" Following this, he drove her into the middle of the desert. He then said "OK, when we shout action, you're going to walk!" He then sped away and left her to walk back to set. Said the model later of the experience: "I want to say it was about half a mile out in the desert. I kept thinking, 'This is a joke, right?'... [It] felt like fire. I remember walking back and being not impressed by the whole thing. I was pretty pissed off afterwards.
Hugo Weaving Considered His Work As The Voice Of Megatron To Be Completely "Meaningless"
As the main antagonist of the Transformers films, Megatron is presented as a big bad tyrant who rules with an iron fist. That's not how Hugo Weaving, the voice behind the aggressive hunk of metal, saw his character at all. To him, Megatron was nothing more than a heaping pile of space-junk.
At the time, Weaving was more invested in a play. He saw his role in the Transformers franchise as "meaningless" and went as far as to state, "I had no knowledge of it, I didn't care about it, I didn't think about it." To put how little he cared about his role into perspective, he claimed he spent no more than two hours acting out the part in the recording booth.
