'Men' at Work

Michael Bay makes his acting debut in ''Mystery Men'' -- the ''Armageddon'' director talks about life on the other side of the camera Michael Bay

by Jessica Shaw

Blow 'em up director Michael Bay (''Armageddon,'' ''Bad Boys'') now knows firsthand the torment he regularly puts his casts through. Playing the head of an evil frat-boy gang, Bay makes his acting debut August 6 in ''Mystery Men,'' Kinka Usher's superhero comedy, which also stars Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. Not that he could stop directing even when the camera was pointed his way. ''(Costar) Geoffrey Rush started improvising, and I said my line at the wrong point and then I go, Cut! I fucked that up,''' Bay tells EW Online. ''And then (Usher) was shooting me with this wide thing in front of my nostrils. I was like, 'You cannot put me on film with that piece-of-shit lens.''

Of course, the most difficult thing about acting for Bay came between shots. ''I sat in my trailer so bored. There was nothing in the fridge. There was a bed slipcover with no sheet,'' he complains. ''From now on in every movie I direct there are going to be videogames, a fully stocked fridge, and videos of all my past movies.''