Michael Bay is very good at a particular kind of cinema, namely, blowing shit up real good. Certainly with his “Transformers” movies, no one is showing up for the plot, but instead for the one or two decent remarkably staged action sequences. Dude knows his way around a setpiece. However, no one would put his talents in the same category as film god Ingmar Bergman…..except Peter Stormare.
The always entertaining actor sat down with AV Club, and a good chunk of the conversation pivoted around the famous Swedish filmmaker. Stormare had a role in one of Bergman’s final films, 1997’s “In The Presence Of A Clown,” and he bounced back and forth between that production and Steven Spielberg‘s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” with the actor passing messages between the two directors. And while one can perhaps see the influence, or least appreciation, of Bergman on Spielberg, it’s not so clear with Bay. However, Stormare says the blockbuster filmmaker — who he worked with on “Armageddon,” “Bad Boys II,” and “Pain & Gain” (though his scenes were cut) — has a bit of Bergman in him. Here’s what the actor had to say:
I have to say, Michael Bay—I’ve been with him three times now—to me, he’s one of the outstanding directors in this town. I love him dearly. I have all the respect for him. There’s a lot of stories about him, a lot of people trash him, but, as an actor—I said to him, “You’re the closest to Ingmar Bergman out of anybody that I ever met in this country as a director.”
He’s very precise, he knows exactly what he wants. But he’s sort of on speed all the time—natural speed—but if you could see the enthusiasm he has, which Spielberg also had when he was younger. When he did Lost World, Spielberg was bouncing around like a young kid, showing us, “Look at this set, isn’t it fantastic? Come on, let’s do it! Let’s do it!” And the thing with Michael—he’s very precise. For me as an actor, I take no offense when a director says, “Little faster. No, too fast. Little more anger. Don’t say it in anger. You know, say it in a kind way. I know it’s written like it’s anger, but say it nice and smile.” He’s very precise, at least with me….
[He’s] amazing because he knows what he wants. He has the whole movie in his head already. He knows how he wants to edit it. And I have the biggest respect for him. I think he’s wonderful to work with, he’s wonderful just to sit and talk to, and he sets the bar for all the movies here. Who can do X-Men? No one else could surpass his version of X-Men. If you let him do a Marvel movie, he would set the bar so high that no one could follow him….
He’s smart, but he’s ADHD or whatever it’s called. And if you just look away, he’s very much like Bergman. Enthusiastic, very precise….
Ingmar said to me, “The more simple you are, the more shit people read into your thing.” And also Michael’s a very—he’s always been simple with me. I always had a very good time, always smile, always laugh, and always feel enlightened every time I go. I learn something. He’s always very specific and very direct, because, as with Bergman, he always knows exactly what he wants, and he doesn’t want to improvise and do a lot of shit. He’s very prepped—he knows exactly what he wants.
And that’s rare. That’s rare. A lot of directors here say, “What do you want to do?” And I usually answer, “I can do it in a thousand ways. It’s going to take three days to get through all that crap. What do you want? You must have an idea, you casted me in this. Please.” So my experience with Michael is all just thumbs up. I hope he does some more interesting movies like Pain & Gain. He might have to do Transformers 6 to get some money to do something. Because he has managers and agents, too, who don’t want him to do small movies because they get 10 percent. I’ve been seated with him and Will Smith when they wanted to do a small, small little movie and I had a part in it, and they couldn’t do it. They were fighting for two years and they couldn’t do the movie. Because each other’s agents or reps just fucked it up so they never could do it. Which was a bummer, because it was a good script that will never be made.
It’s a pretty interesting claim by Stormare that Bay is hooked to “Transformers” because the people around him want to get some decent paychecks. And it’s certainly disappointing that whatever he was cooking up with Will Smith won’t get made. But it does sound like Bay, for all the criticisms lobbed his way, has got the real deal stuff behind the camera.
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