14 DAY TRIAL // Hugo Weaving is sure getting a lot of people upset with his recent comments. After saying he would never want to do another Marvel movie again (as Red Skull), he also thrashed Michael Bay’s “Transformers” films by saying he only agreed to voice Megatron for the money.
A video report on his comments, which he insists he did not mean in any negative way, is below.
Weaving was talking about his work on “Transformers” and how he felt no connection to the project or to director Michael Bay, whom he never met and only spoke to on Skype.
He also said that voicing Megatron was “just a check” but, at the same time, a very “pathetic” job for the reasons stated above.
In this context, it’s not hard to believe that Michael Bay is super upset about what he heard. In a post on his official webpage (which he almost immediately deleted), he throws Weaving under the bus, saying he has no right to complain about getting paid for doing almost nothing.
If he doesn’t like making money so easily, he can just donate it, Bay says.
“Do you ever get sick of actors that make $15 million [€11.49 million] a picture, or even $200,000 [€153,233] for voiceover work that took a brisk one hour and 43 minutes to complete, and then complain about their jobs?” Bay writes, referring to Weaving – and yes, Megan Fox.
“With all the problems facing our world today, do these grumbling thespians really think people reading the news actually care about trivial complaints that their job wasn’t ‘artistic enough’ or ‘fulfilling enough’?” Bay asks.
In saying these thing, they refuse to see the forest because of the trees and, what’s worse, do so publicly with their dumb statements.
“What happened to people who had integrity, who did a job, got paid for their hard work, and just smiled afterward? Be happy you even have a job — let alone a job that pays you more than 98% of the people in America,” the director goes on to say.
Because he’s always a man with a plan, Bay even offers Weaving an alternative: donate the money.
“I have a wonderful idea for all those whiners: They can give their ‘unhappy job money’ to a wonderful Elephant Rescue. It’s the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Africa. I will match the funds they donate,” Bay says.
Michael Bay may not be the most artsy director in the industry – far from it, actually – but he does make a valid point: it’s not like someone forced Weaving to take the job. If he did, he should be professional about it and not throw dirt at other people’s work.
