Michael Bay: Bay Watch

Q: What makes your partnership with Jerry Bruckheimer work?

A: I can handle the production stuff, and Jerry keeps all the other shit away from me. When you have this large a budget, you can't handle it on your own. It's good to have somebody to bounce things off. Jerry makes it easier.

Q: In Bad Boys, you cast Will Smith and Martin Lawrence when both were TV stars. What made you think they'd mesh so well?

A: After Jerry and Don dropped the idea of doing the movie with Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz, they were thinking about Arsenio Hall and Martin. I said to Don, "There's this guy who's going to be hot, Will Smith." Then he and Jerry got on the bandwagon. The movie was hard. I'm busting my ass, and Martins giving me shit. I'm not into bullshit. We laugh about this now, but I said, "What the fuck's up with you? Why are you such an asshole?" I knew he just wanted to see what I was made of. He says, "I'm a black man who never had anything." I said, "You know what? I'm a white man who never had anything, either. And I'm busting my ass to make this movie." We've been great friends ever since.

Q: How do you manipulate actors into doing what you want?

A: Tom Sizemore told me this story about what Spielberg once said to an actor: "I've done four takes on you. I'm going to give you one more, and if you can't get it right, I'm moving on." That's great motivation. There are stories about me, that I'm tough. You know what? I know what I'm doing. When you've got 14 planes in the air, bombs that can kill and 650 people spread out over the length of three football fields, you'd better be loud.

Q: In a recent Movieline interview, Tea Leoni said she'd been knocked out in Bad Boys, and when she came to, you seemed more upset that she couldn't complete the scene than about her well-being. Is that unfair?

A: I think it is unfair. First of all, there was a studio saying, "If you don't get this shot now, it's not in the movie." I've got that on my shoulders. She got whacked in the neck by Martin's stunt guy, and of course I was freaked out by it and concerned for her. But a million other things are going through my mind. What do we do now? She's got to go to the hospital, she's going to be in a neck brace. Can we fake it? There are so many things when you're a director that you don't make known.

Q: On The Rock, you worked with Nic Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris. Did you have to prove yourself to Connery?

A: Yeah. I wasn't intimidated because I'd filmed commercials with very famous athletes who had contracts with Nike and would tell me, "I'm dunking once." I'd say, "I'm doing a whole commercial about you dunking." And they'd say, "Well, I'm dunking once, maybe twice." I learned how to deal with these guys. Some directors will cower, but I don't take shit.

Q: So there were no problems at all with Connery?

A: No. Well, on the last day, he did call me a fuckhead. He had to hold his breath for 30 seconds in the water while a fireball blew over his head. He and Nic couldn't come up, or they'd get burned badly. It took me a half hour to convince Nic to go down. He'd say, "OK, so like, if I come up, you're telling me my hair and face will melt?" I'm like, "Yeah, you can't come up." Sean did not like the water. He said, "We should have fucking rehearsed this, fuckhead." I said, "How are you going to rehearse with a fireball? How do you want me to do that on a stage?" He was just tired. He wanted to go home.

Q: Armageddon starred Bruce Willis, who has the rep of taking over movies from weaker directors.

A: I am not that type of guy. I've got the movie in my head, and nobody's going to tell me how to shoot it. I was freaked out when Bruce arrived a month after I began shooting. He started doing exactly what you're saying. We were like two dogs sniffing each other. But it got better once he got comfortable with me. He'd been burned recently. All actors want is to not get burned. When I started showing Bruce some scenes, he said, "Mike, if you'd shown me that a little earlier, we'd have been a lot better friends." I love Bruce.

Q: What's your biggest strength as a director?

A: I am very good at handling a huge movie, with a million things going on. I'm very decisive, clear in what I want. I'm very cost-conscious, in terms of how to get the big bang on the screen. I'm very good at making things happen very fast.

Q: Weaknesses?

A: Patience. The politics. I just want to shoot.

Q: Was there one project you desperately wanted and didn't get?

A: Speed. I wanted that bad, before I got Bad Boys. They wanted a more experienced director. Jan De Bont made it his first movie, but he'd had a lot of experience as a cinematographer. Then I wanted Drop Zone, which became an ungodly movie, but which I wanted to do because I thought I knew how to make it cool. Sherry Lansing says, "I love you, honey, but..."

Q: Have you ever wished critics would appreciate your work more, and give you credit for more than just commercial success?

A: Nope. For me, the great joy is to watch an audience watching what I've made. To hear not a peep from the audience at the right moment, and then to hear the laughs and the cheers.

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Michael Fleming interviewed Michael Douglas for the December/January issue of Movieline.

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