ROTTEN TOMATOES: Forum Poster Bruce Willis Ain't Cool With Michael Bay

Forum Poster Bruce Willis Ain't Cool With Michael Bay

by Jen Yamato | May 10, 2007

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Bruce Willis has been chatting up some lucky web readers over his upcoming reemergence in "Live Free or Die Hard," talking movies and alienating "Armageddon" director Michael Bay along the way. Today: Bay's response!

The folks over at AICN hit the motherlode of fanboy crushing come to life this week when a certain forum poster named "Walter B." turned out to be none other than "Die Hard" star (Walter) Bruce Willis. Willis first emerged May 5 in a discussion over "Die Hard 4"'s PG-13 rating, encouraging skeptical readers to be patient because, PG-13 or no, "DH4" would be the best series installment yet.

The next day he returned to anonymously discuss the film, identifying himself as "someone who worked on the picture"; eventually he disclosed his true identity, but not before dropping the diss on Michael Bay (with whom he worked on 1998's "Armageddon": "[Bay] would have ruined DH4. Few people will work with him now, and I know I will never work with him again."

Later, he added more on the "Armageddon" experience: "I loved working with all the guys, the actor [sic] I mean. It was a great crew, but a screaming Director does not make for a pleasant set experience."

Writing on his own blog, Bay hit back at the comments:

"Hard to believe it really is Bruce saying that stuff on AICN. I loved working with Bruce. He gave me a big hug one month ago at the GM party and we talked for 20 minutes. We even talked about working together again! I mean it would be sad if he felt this way - he's never one to hide his feelings - I say sad, in that he wouldn't be man enough to say it to my face. But truly sad that such a big time actor would have to hide on a little talk back section. So I really don't believe this story.

I find it also totally odd that my agents at William Morris got the call from Bruce's people to inquire if I would like to helm Die Hard 4, but I was already on Transformers."

Willis has been busy "unofficially" discussing "Die Hard 4" in the media of late (see his live courtside F-bomb endorsement at a recent Nets playoff game). Perhaps it is because, as he posted on AICN, he just really wanted to bypass the Hollywood hype machine and get down to discussing the flick with "real" people on the internet. He certainly has been entertaining the wide-ranging variety of questions lobbied at him on the AICN forum; read the full thread for an entire day's worth of tense "is he or isn't he Bruce Willis" talk (a reader finally verifies it's Willis via video chat, before AICN honcho Harry Knowles gives his official confirmation).

Some highlights of the thread (click here to read at AICN):

On "Die Hard 4" helmer Len Wiseman: "[Wiseman] will be remembered as the guy who not only brought Die Hard into the 21st Century, but brought it back to Life."

On "The Last Boy Scout": "The Last Boy Scout started out to be a great film about Sports Gambling. Somewhere along the line it got changed into some silly f***ing chase to save a Senator that got me fired."

On his duds: "I reject all judgment, and in general keep my own counsel, for good or bad. Which is why I can take credit for deciding to do movies like 12 Monkeys and Pulp Fiction, as well as having to hang my head for deciding to do dogs like Striking Distance and Sunset...."

"The lesson of Tears [of the Sun] was never start a film without a finished script."

"And Perfect Stranger was ruined by the producers."

On "Die Hard 2": "The second was my least favorite, and the least fun. Far to [sic] self-referentially precious, the story was all over the place, and suffered from severe un-claustrophobic-ness."

On being misconstrued in Vanity Fair: "Writers often need to present a "thesis" to their articles, and Peter Biskin chose the rating as his."

On the MPAA: "I believe it'll come around to a less antiquated system, but who knows when. Jack Valenti ran that sytem into the ground."

On missed opportunities: "The only 2 passes I regret are not doing Ghost, and passing on the part of Moose in The English Patient. I passed on Ghost thinking, a Romance with a Dead guy? And I was talked out of working with by my then agent. I also wanted to play the Andy Garcia part in Ocean's 11, but thought I would wait for a film with G. Clooney where it was just him and me."

"Live Free or Die Hard" hits theaters June 29 (and, if Bruno is to be trusted, will be good).

Related Items

Movie:	Die Hard
	Transformers
	Tears of the Sun
	Armageddon
	The English Patient
	12 Monkeys
	Die Hard 3: Die Hard With a Vengeance
	Pulp Fiction
	Striking Distance
	The Last Boy Scout
	Ghost
	Die Hard 2: Die Harder
	Sunset
	Perfect Stranger
Celeb:	Michael Bay
	Bruce Willis

(1-20 of 33 posts) | Reply

Now it's dark writes:
on May 10 2007 08:17 PM

They don't call him "The Boss" for nothin'.

(Reply to this)

lavatory love machine writes:
on May 10 2007 08:44 PM

damn, he didn't answer my question about his erotic movie with jane march, "color of night"

(Reply to this)

Illusionator writes:
on May 10 2007 09:25 PM

Bay is a douche

(Reply to this)

Scarborough Fair writes:
on May 10 2007 09:55 PM

The way he's "going to the people" and skipping all that "hollywood bullshit" and whatnot, makes me think this is a man trying to convince himself his movie is good. Maybe it is! But just reading this stuff, and seeing that clip of him at the nets game...looks and sounds like a man who is trying to convince himself of something.

or is drunk.

(Reply to this)

Dread86 writes:
on May 10 2007 10:39 PM

Bay's not that bad. He just directs silly movies. I liked the Rock, and The Island was decent.

(Reply to this)

uhhuhnads writes:
on May 10 2007 10:41 PM

Are you telling me you wouldn't do something like that? I honestly think he was having fun. Come on...it was even fun reading.

(Reply to this)

Instructo writes:
on May 10 2007 11:14 PM

i wish actors would come answer questions at RT :(

(Reply to this)

SolidChamp writes:
on May 11 2007 01:55 AM

[b]Not fair...[/b]
How come that lame excuse for a discussion forum gets Bruce Willis and all RT gets is Kevin Smith?

*kidding about the Kevin Smith part, he's alright*

It's so freakin' cluttered, you can't directly reply to someone by quoting their comments. You're reduced to "HEY SO AND SO!"

Also, it seemed like there were a lot of real, bonafide douche bags posting there. He should come over to the RT forums, not nearly as many douche bags over here (I can probably count them on both hands, though).

(Reply to this)

Defmonkey writes:
on May 11 2007 06:28 AM

[b]Its True!!![/b]
Celebs Thread Crap too people!! That is so hilarious.

I wish I was a rich movie star, because the first thing I would be doing in my trailer, waiting to go on screen is posting about previous directors/actors and how they were whiny bitches and still wore their momma's underwear.

I wonder what other famous people thread crap... hmmm.

(Reply to this)

zgberg writes:
on May 11 2007 06:41 AM

[b]The Boss[/b]
That's Bruce Springsteen, not Bruce Willis, who is known as "the boss" - sheesh

(Reply to this)

South_park300 writes:
on May 11 2007 07:16 AM

just to let you guys know, i'm actually Bruce Willis. go see Die Hard 4! It's the best comedy since The Whole Ten Yards!

(Reply to this)

Billy Sacco writes:
on May 11 2007 07:45 AM

I think its pretty classless to go on an internet forum and start talking trash about people like that when your a major celebrity. And lets face it the movie is probably going to suck. I mean the freaking annoying mac guy is in it for crying out loud!

(Reply to this)

Vitamin M writes:
on May 11 2007 08:35 AM

In reply to this comment (#864890)
Most poster's on AICN are douche bags that care more about ripping someone and making jokes then having an actual conversation. (Not everyone but quite a few).
Bruce is awesome!

(Reply to this)

Merlin235 writes:
on May 11 2007 08:36 AM

In reply to this comment (#864894)
Agreed. Same reason it was a bummer to see Lucas calling Spiderman 3 'silly'.

(Reply to this)

South_park300 writes:
on May 11 2007 08:39 AM

Hey guys! seriously, i'm Bruce Willis! I'm on an internet forum, so of course i'm telling the truth!

(Reply to this)

blank blank writes:
on May 11 2007 08:47 AM

ive got to come clean, im actually micheal bay, and im offended that people think my movies are crap. to quote george lucas... they arent.

but seriously, i dont care how many crappy movies bruce willis makes from here on out, he's awesome. Die Hard is without a doubt the greatest action movie of all time (in the action genre, not superhero or sci fi or stuff) and armageddon is one of my guilty pleasure movies, its oddly watchable for some reason (i think its because unlike the island, bay didnt take himself too seriously)... i always heard that willis was offered the part of danny ocean, not andy garcia's role. 11 might have been really good with bruce as ocean (i still liked it alot though), but for my money, andy garcia was suitably slimy and unlikeable in 11, and that role wouldnt have fit bruce very well i think...

but i agree that its classless for bruce to bash people on forums like that, even if it is micheal bay

(Reply to this)

Mattmovies writes:
on May 11 2007 08:53 AM

South_park300, Do you happen to be Michael Bay by any chance?

(Reply to this)

Neclord writes:
on May 11 2007 09:32 AM

"I think its pretty classless to go on an internet forum and start talking trash about people like that when your a major celebrity."

So basically every single person on the internet gets a free pass for this, but celebrities should should keep their mouth shut? Sheesh.

(Reply to this)

RockinTheFro writes:
on May 11 2007 09:38 AM

[b]AICN douchebags[/b]
Bruce takes time out of his day to answer some questions and the douches over there just rag on him and say "Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" He didn't have to answer anyone's questions, but chose to. Jeez.

(Reply to this)

arendr writes:
on May 11 2007 10:11 AM

In reply to this comment (#864901)
"So basically every single person on the internet gets a free pass for this, but celebrities should should keep their mouth shut? Sheesh."

i agree with this. in fact, i was about to post the same thing.

(Reply to this)