Michael Bay is not a guy accustomed to apologizing. He's had to do it a few times, of course, namely when an extra was critically injured on the set of Transformers 3 (we take the exclusion of racist Autobots Skids and Mudflap from Transformers 3 as a quiet apology as well). But, weirdly, he's using the promotional tour for his upcoming Pain & Gain as a chance to apologize for what might be his most universally beloved film behind The Rock. Here he is talking to The Miami Herald:
“I will apologize for Armageddon, because we had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks. It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I called James Cameron and asked ‘What do you do when you’re doing all the effects yourself?’ But the movie did fine.
There is something amazing about how Bay can include a name-drop even in the middle of an apology, so that even when he's recounting what sounds like an awful professional experience, he can remind you that he's personal friends with James Cameron anyway. And saying "the movie did fine" is a serious understatement, since it made more than $200 million domestic and nearly a half billion worldwide. But I guess in Michael Bay dollars, that's only gonna buy you so many new hovercrafts?
To see what happens when Bay attempts to make a small movie-- albeit one about bodybuilders and Miami and money-- check out Pain & Gain this weekend.
