Media outlets are reporting with some glee the fact that Director Michael Bay walked out of a presentation for Samsung curved televisions after suffering from a terrible case of nerves and stage fright.
Hundreds of journalists and industry professionals were gathered in a Las Vegas hall for the world's biggest gadget show. They watched as Bay took his position in front of a 105 inch television that Samsung were launching.
Who better than the director of the Transformers franchise to convince us of the transformative power of a television designed to wow consumers and help safeguard Samsung's future? Then things started to go wrong. The autocue appeared to malfunction and Bay froze. Cajoling from Joe Stinziano, Samsung's executive vice president, did not work. “The curve? How do you think it's going to impact how viewers experience your movies?”
Bay who directed Armageddon, Transformers and Pearl Harbour, hunched his shoulders and scuttled off stage. “Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”
An excruciating silence descended before Stinziano, marooned, asked for the audience to applaud. A few clapped. Then the executive resumed the presentation solo.
The Hollywood A-lister subsequently posted an explanation on his blog. “Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar. 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.”
This is a real example of how people suffer from a fear of public speaking. Who would have thought that a man who directs multi million pound films and tells hundreds of people what to do would have a fear of standing up and speaking in front of people.
Good for him that he was honest and wrote about how difficult he found it to stand up and speak in front of people. Let's hope that he seeks some advice and help so that he can stand up and enjoy the experience next time.
