“I wouldn’t let him rehearse as much”: Michael Bay isn’t a Fan of Tom Cruise Making Death-Defying Stunts for One Reason That He Never Wishes to Follow in His Movies

SUMMARY

• Michael Bay builds his reputation on the backs of stunt action filmography and explosive sequences that make his movies a step apart from his contemporaries.
• Tom Cruise's mastery over stunts makes him an unfavorable candidate in Michael Bay's books due to a strange reason.
• Michael Bay considers a shift in his career arc as the director looks to make more meaningful and mature movies as opposed to explosive projects like Transformers.

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Michael Bay’s presence in the movie industry can always be traced by the scent of lingering gunpowder and the sound of crashing cars. The action movie director has never been one for subtlety. Instead, explosive action has littered his films like the cinematic equivalent of a Jackson Pollock. Even then, Bay’s films haven’t been entirely without its charms.

Michael Bay on the sets of Transformers: Age of Extinction [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

From Bad Boys to Transformers, there has never been a dull moment in a Michael Bay film. Despite the context, the audience can always guarantee an ear-ringing experience in the theaters topped with stunt-filled cinematography unmatched in scale. Curiously enough, Bay is the only director who is against the idea of casting stunt god Tom Cruise in his films.

Michael Bay & His Aversion to Tom Cruise’s Stunts

With a religiously devoted love for stunt action filmography, both Tom Cruise and Michael Bay remain unparalleled in their respective career paths as an actor and a director. As such, a confluence of the two can only be regarded as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by many. According to Bay, however, the reality is quite the opposite.

Tom Cruise performs his biggest stunt ever in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

Referring to Cruise’s iconic Mission: Impossible franchise and the progressively riskier death-defying stunts that feature in each of his films, Bay revealed a rare truth — “I like my stunts to be dirty and messy.” In comparison, Cruise’s performances in the spy action thrillers require weeks of practice, choreography, and preparation in the run-up to the final take.

In a 2017 interview with Fandango, Bay claimed:

We’ve talked but I told him, ‘Tom, I know you rehearse your stunts over and over, but I like sloppy stunts.’ So that would be the rub working with us, I wouldn’t let him rehearse as much.

Therein lies the conflict. Despite delivering impeccable, graceful, and unforgettable sequences, Tom Cruise might just be a little too polished for Michael Bay’s liking. The irony makes the latter’s situation funnier to comprehend in hindsight, despite being partially right. After all, Bay’s movies would lose their charm if he abandoned his “dirty and messy stunts” for Cruise’s more refined ones.

Michael Bay Makes Some Changes in His Career

Ever since making his feature directorial debut with Will Smith’s Bad Boys, Michael Bay has been on top of the movie-making business, armed and ready to deliver explosive summer blockbusters that earn more commercial fare than critical acclaim. But gone are the days of youth and Bay insists on leaving a legacy behind that has more meaning to it than just superficial action.

Transformers [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

As the director reaches the third act of his career, Bay seeks for depth and maturity in his work and wants to leave his Transformers days behind. Even though the director may forever be remembered by the franchise that also catapulted Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox into the limelight, there may still be a surprise trick or two left up his sleeves.

After being momentarily linked to directing a Lobo film for DC, Bay has moved on since then to pick up more genre-bending projects. Currently, Michael Bay is attached to bring Skibidi Toilet to the silver screen after the eponymous 11-second video made by YouTuber Alexey Gerasimov went viral in 2023 for a reason that can only be labeled as signature Gen Alpha humor.

The Transformers and Mission: Impossible films are available to stream on Paramount+.

Written by Diya Majumdar

Articles Published: 1777

With a degree in Literature from Miranda House, Diya Majumdar now has over 1700 published articles on FandomWire. Her passion and profession both include dissecting the world of cinema while being a liberally opinionated person with an overbearing love for music, Monet, and Van Gogh.