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Michael Bay

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Michael Bay

16 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

16 Interesting Facts About Michael Bay

Interesting Facts (12)

  1. #001

    On Bad Boys (1995), Bay paid $25,000 — a quarter of his fee — for the explosion scene on the rooftop. The first take was made impossible by a rainstorm, and the production company refused to pay for another attempt.

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  2. #002

    More than a million feet of film was shot for Pearl Harbor (2001). Only about 20,000 feet were used in the final nine-reel cut.

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  3. #003

    Because of the extremely intense and chaotic nature of his film sets, cast and crew often call it "Bayhem."

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  4. #004

    Because they went to the same school and worked at Propaganda Films, Michael Bay has great respect for filmmaker Zack Snyder and is a good friend of his.

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  5. #005

    Two of Michael Bay's films, Armageddon (1998) and The Rock (1996), are in the Criterion Collection.

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  6. #006

    In October 2013, on the Hong Kong set of the latest Transformers (2007) sequel, Michael Bay was reported to be fine and uninjured after fending off two men who attacked him demanding money and carried an "air conditioner" as a weapon.

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  7. #007

    While filming, Michael Bay uses a Mark V director's viewfinder. The viewfinder often stands out prominently in photos of him with it hanging around his neck. His name and the name of every film he has directed are engraved on it.

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  8. #008

    Michael Bay turned down the offer to direct Van Helsing (2004) and chose to make The Island (2005) instead.

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  9. #009

    For Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal (1993), he filmed the dynamic shots of the dice thrown in the gambling scenes. He later "reclaimed" the footage for a montage in Armageddon (1998).

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  10. #010

    Michael Bay is a very good friend of Don Michael Paul and even lent him some aerial footage, from The Rock (1996) to Paul's Half Past Dead (2002).

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  11. #011

    Michael Bay sees himself as an old-school director; he prefers analog to digital, shooting on film stock and keeping CGI shots to a minimum, and stages practical action and stunts whenever possible.

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  12. #012

    Michael Bay initially was not going to return to direct Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). However, Bay later changed his mind after seeing so many fans during a visit to the Transformers ride at Universal Studios, and Paramount also agreed to finance Pain & Gain (2013) in exchange for his return.

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Characters & Cast (1)

  1. #013

    Michael Bay has two English Mastiff dogs: Grace, named after the character Liv Tyler played in Armageddon (1998), and Bonecrusher, named after the Decepticon that appeared in Transformers (2007). His Bullmastiff, Mason Rock Bay, played the character Sean Connery portrayed in The Rock (1996) and died of old age in 2007.

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Life & Family (3)

  1. #014

    Of the films he has directed, Michael Bay's favorite is The Rock (1996), and his favorite actor to work with is Sean Connery.

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  2. #015

    In 2001, "Movieline" revealed that Bay's father was John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer, who always denied paternity, had a DNA test done in the 1980s and the result was negative.

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  3. #016

    He studied under film historian Jeanine Basinger at Wesleyan University; Basinger later provided an audio commentary with Bay for the Pearl Harbor (2001) DVD. Producers Ruben Fleischer, Joss Whedon and Benh Zeitlin are also Wesleyan graduates.

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Related pages

Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb name page (biography and trivia)

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