10. Will Smith, who after Bad Boys made Independence Day and Men in Black in quick succession, credited Bay for propelling him to movie stardom with his shirtless vision.
“So Michael Bay was shooting this scene, and I wanted to have my shirt on,” Smith recalled on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2020. “And Michael was like, ‘Dude, I’m gonna make you a frickin’ movie star! Take your shirt off.”
“I was like, ‘Mike, come on, man, running with your shirt off? Come on, man.’ And he was like, ‘Dude, you don’t know! I know.’ So we compromised in that scene. I was like, ‘Mike, I have to have a shirt. I’ll have it open, just not off.’ And we compromised, and it was one of the iconic scenes from that movie. And to this day, every time I see Michael Bay, he goes, ‘Dude, I should be in for half!'”
