That's When Michael Bay Stranded Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the Desert

Michael Bay is notoriously tough on actors -- just ask Megan Fox -- but it appears he gave new Transformers: Dark of the Moon star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley some preparedness training before he even cast her in the new robot-killing film. Warning: this story involves the desert, high heels, and underwear.

GQ has posted an outtake from its massive oral history of Michael Bay -- on newsstands Monday, an obvious must-purchase -- and in it, Huntington-Whiteley discusses the first time she met Mr. Bay.

[Click for images from the Transformers: Dark of the Moon premiere in Moscow.]

I first met Michael back in 2009; it was on the set of the Christmas commercial for Victoria's Secret. I remember the first thing Michael said to me-- before he even introduced himself or asked me my name--was "Can you walk?" And I looked at him like, "What is this man talking about? Yeah, of course I can walk." And then he proceeded to tell them to get me in the car, and then I was driven--I mean, honestly, I want to say it was about half a mile out in the desert. I kept thinking, "This is a joke, right?" And the car dumped me in the middle of the desert. I all I was wearing was a bra and underwear and a big, billowing, black, floor-length cape and high heels. And he says, "OK, when we shout action, you're going to walk!" and I assumed I would be doing this in several stages. They yelled action, and the car sped off back to set, and I just was like, "Well, what am I supposed to do?"

So I walked all the way back to where the camera was standing, which took me--I would say a good 10, 12 minutes, and it was a proper runway stomp--on salt flats; it was like 100 degrees, felt like fire. I remember walking back and being not impressed by the whole thing. I was pretty pissed off afterwards; I just looked at Michael, and he goes, "I guess you can walk, then."

No hard feelings, obviously, but classic nonetheless. Bay takes that old Hitchcock adage about actors being cattle, and adds salt-flats and push-up bras to the equation. The man is a genius. Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes out next week.

· The Oral History of Michael Bay: Bonus Outtake #1 -- Rosie's Story [GQ]