Watch Michael Bay’s “Stage Meltdown”; Director Cites Teleprompter
Director Michael Bay has a lot of haters out there as a result of the no-shame, borderline-"I'm Da Bess" persona he tends to don. But when it comes to freezing up on stage, even some of those harsh critics can surely lend some sympathy.
The director was invited to Samsung's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) press conference to speak about his experience as a director, using Samsung's Curved 105-inch UHD TV and perhaps his upcoming film, 'Transformers: Age of Extinction.' That is, he was supposed to speak. Some media outlets are deeming what happened on stage as a "meltdown," which evokes images of some sort of wild and crazy action along the likes of Christian Bale's famous snap on the 'Terminator' set. What really happened was that Bay -- for lack of a better word -- choked.
After Samsung Electronics America President Tim Baxter introduced Bay to the stage, the director attempted to read from a prompter, though said prompter "got lost." As he wrote on his official blog:
I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down – then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.
He continued to write, "I’m doing a special curved screen experience with Samsung and Transformers 4 footage that will be traveling around the world." So, at least, there's that to take away from this whole experience. You try watching the video above five times without feeling at least somewhat bad for this guy!