The Transformers brand is still going on with Rise of the Beasts. Even though the brand has been best associated with Michael Bay, his days of directing are long over. Yet, it can’t be denied that there’s a charm in the films he made that makes them have an insanely high re-watch value.
However, it has also been alleged that he was a tyrant on the sets of his Transformers films. In fact, there’s speculation that Megan Fox was fired after two films because she had publicly criticized his on-set tyrannical behavior. But did he also try the same on another one of his actors?
John Turturro Climbed Up A Pyramid During Transformers 2 And Cried
In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the gang heads to the Pyramids to uncover ancient mysteries related to the Decepticons and Autobots. In the film, John Turturro played Simmons and he even got to climb the Pyramids while filming in Egypt. In an interview with Examiner, he was asked if he really did climb the historical monuments and Turturro answered that he did. The actor said:
“Yes, that’s why they hired me after the professional stuntmen. I kept climbing and I went a little too high one day, and I heard all this screaming in Arabic. I thought they were worried about me, but they were worried I was going too high and I was going to injure the pyramid. It was interesting.”
Michael Bay too confirmed in an interview with New Zealand Herald that Turturro had climbed the pyramids and even cried as he was climbing up. It wasn’t because of the director, but because he couldn’t believe he was even allowed to do it. Bay said:
“When John Turturro was filming on the pyramid, he had a tear in his eye. I said, ‘Why are you crying? What’s going on?’ He said, ‘You just don’t get to do this in movies. You don’t get to shoot in a place that’s 4000 years old.”‘
But how did the director actually manage to go to Egypt and even get permission to film on the thousands of years old pyramids? It’s all thanks to the first film.
How Did Michael Bay Film On The Pyramids In Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen?
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed $836 million at the box office and a part of that was because audiences were mesmerized by the exotic locales. So how did Michael Bay manage to do that? It’s because the Middle Eastern royalty were fans of the first film. The director said:
“The Prince and the King of Jordan were big fans of Transformers. That helped.”
The director also talked about how the King let them use the airforce for the shooting of the second Transformers film. He said:
“I take you to places that have never been shot in a movie. The top of Petra has never been put on film, period. King Abdullah II let us take 36 helicopter loads of military men up there. We were able to use a crane, so we take the viewer on aerial shots of the pyramid that even National Geographic never got permission to do.”
Today Bay isn’t associated with the Transformers franchise, whether that’s for better or for worse varies from one fan to the other.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: NZ Herald and Examiner
