I have so many stories about Michael Bay. I know many people who work with him. He most definitely comes across as a raging asshole upon first glance - but I've heard three different versions of "Michael Bay hanging out with the camera department after wrap because he has no friends." I've heard, four times, about how he lashes out at people at random - but twice about people who, desperate to get off a Michael Bay set, lashed back and ended up being personally requested by Michael Bay again and again and again.

He's the Russ Meyer of explosions. He knows it. He wears it well. He tried for high-brow exactly once (his first foray away from Bruckheimer) and it went poorly:

The director's commentary on that film is amazing. I've never listened to him on anything else, but hearing Michael Bay riff alone in a room as he watches his least successful film of all time is a trip and a half.

He's John Frankenheimer's love child, but Frankenheimer never acknowledged him. Paid for him, though. Michael grew up rich and spoiled. His Art Center thesis film cost two million dollars. Buddy of mine worked with his sister. She said the family stopped talking to him years ago after their intervention that he needed to dial it back before he killed someone.

There's a desperate quest for love at the heart of Michael Bay... and abundant evidence that he's never gotten the attention he so desperately needed. I'm not a fan of his films but I think there's more complexity to who he is than comes across in the caricatures that he so gleefully encourages.