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Razzie-award winning director Michael Bay has explained — if not apologised for — what went wrong during his brief appearance at Samsung’s press conference in Las Vegas last night.
“Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES — I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar,” the Transformers auteur writes on his website.
“I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down — then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing.”
Bay, who will never extinguish the tiny flickering candle of warmth I still feel for his masterpiece The Rock, however many Transformers movies he makes, looked genuinely abashed at his failure to deal with the lack of an autocue.
“What I try to do as a director,” he said last night, “is, er [sigh], the type is all off, sorry, but I’ll just wing this.” “Tell us what you think!” encouraged the poor Samsung boss who introduced him. “I try to take people on an emotional ride and…” he stuttered “The Curve? How do you think it’ll impact how viewers experience your movies?” “Excuse me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he muttered, turning on his heel and shamefacedly scurrying away from the giant telly.
You can see the full video here:
The incident evidently hasn’t ended the movie veteran’s relationship with the Korean giant. “I’m doing a special curved screen experience with Samsung and Transformers 4 footage,” Bay promises, “that will be traveling around the world.”
The TV Samsung was unveiling at CES was its curved LED, a concave monster available this April in up to 78-inch sizes — the 105-incher Bay refers to is a showpiece — that can display Ultra HD, aka 4K. You can read CNET’s foremost TV expert David Katzmaier’s first take here. (Sneak preview: “I found myself wishing it was flat.”)
Have you ever been undone by a teleprompter throwing a tantrum? Do you feel sorry for the multimillionaire Hollywood mogul? Share your public speaking nightmares in the comments below, or over on our supportive Facebook page.
