A topic discussed here I'm sure but wanted to weigh in...that has been one of Bay's penchants but there's no question in the Transformers line of films its kinda been magnified. Megan Fox was a relative unknown in 2007 and Rosie Hungtington Whitely of course was a model with no acting experience whatsoever for DOTM. Throw in the Australian chick who played the hacker in the first movie and the chick who played the "pretender" Decepticon in ROTF and they were all unknowns in the big speaking roles for attractive females.

I can understand the position that Bay wanted really attractive young women for those roles. Fine, no problem on my end, believe me I support that too.   What I don't understand about it is this: Hollywood by its very nature tends to advance talented actresses who are all "eye candy" as well. You don't *have* to go find an unknown if your goal is to have a really hot chick playing a big role. If you throw a Jessica Alba or Mila Kunis or Blake Lively or Natalie Portman etc into a role like that, well if you knew nothing about those gals' acting careers and just saw them for the first time of course you'd say they are good eye candy too. But they are also accomplished actresses who have been leads in other movies, so you negate the claims from critics and bashers that you just were out to cast eye candy bimbos...because at some level most of those hot actresses I mention above have also displayed acting talent already in other movies. That's what Hollywood does, it finds talented actors and actresses who usually also tend to be good looking. And lord knows by the second and third TF movies even if debatably not the first, Bay had the budget to go get more accomplished actors and actresses if and when he wanted. So what gives. Why the determination to cast unknown hotties who may or may not have much acting ability when there are accomplished hot actresses aplenty out there.

 

less budget,more income.

 

Probably because at the heart of it all, the chicks didn't really need to be A-list actors (there was at no point any part that required somebody with years of acting experience and talent when it came to the role of "Sam's current squeeze") and even Bay realized there wasn't a chance in hell Sam would ever get it on with somebody who looked like Angelina Jolie, awesome giant transforming prototype muscle car for a best friend or not.

Or he just used the money he saved by hiring breakout actors to boost the explosions budget.

 

It seems that Bay has a good eye on the bottom line. His commentaries / DVD features frequently cite how he does what he can to reduce costs. Having unknown talent probably saves him upwards of a million or perhaps many millions on each film, not to mention that Transformers films shouldn't rely on human actors anyway.

 

You can't get someone who's already famous to wash your ferarri in a bikini for their audition.

 

For a movie with international exposure and a potential box office approaching a billion dollars, I wouldn't be surprised if pretty much any actress would be willing to wash his car and more for the part.

 

I like the unknowns. If I was a movie director I'd gravitate toward casting unknown actors and actresses. For one thing, from an audience perspective, it was easier for me to "buy" actresses like Megan and Rosie in their parts because I'd never seen them play other characters. With A-listers as Mikaela and Carly, it would be harder for me to not say, "Look, it's so-and-so from that such-and-such movie."

 

Right, but we don't apply that standard to Sam's character, Shia Lebouf was a known commodity and nobody minded. Ditto John Tuturro and Josh Duhammel and Frances McDormand and so on. Hell Tyrese Gibson was a male model so that's sort of the same as what he did casting Huntington-Whitely, *but* Gibson also had an established acting resume in major movies already and was viewed mostly as an actor first by time he was cast rather than just some random male model dude.

In other words, I would buy the whole cost-saving and/or "unknowns make it more believable" stuff if that were true across the board. But it isn't. On the contrary, Bay has very very specifically had his attractive leading lady types be much, much more unknown and raw in terms of big league acting experience than just about every other acting role he doled out for other parts in the Transformers movies.

And I kinda disagree that good acting wasn't needed from the roles of Mikela and Carly. It's the freaking lead female part for crissakes, why don't you want to put your best foot forward there both in terms of acting *and* good looks? Did the Avengers movie wind up in the red because it cast Scarlett Johanssen, a hot actress who also happened to have a good resume of previous acting roles?

Bottom line Aernaroth probably has it closest to the mark. Bay is just an old school "casting couch" guy who gets off on the coolness and power of being the guy who gives hot chicks their first big Hollywood break and getting to feel like they are indebted to him.

And let me reiterate, I think Megan Fox is smokin' hot and Rosie is good too. I have no problem at all with eye candy. But the fact is, this Transformers franchise has found itself kinda labelled as always having a "piece of a$$/eye candy" lead actress who doesn't add anything to the proceedings. I'm saying there's no real reason for that that makes sense other than Bay's whim. Just adding an actress in that spot who brings her own street cred while still being a hottie takes a whole lot of heat off you critically and with lots of audience members. Most of those types of actresses have done scenes too where they show as much or often times more skin than Megan Fox or Rosie did anyway, but their movies don't get viewed as having "eye candy bimbo leads" the way the Transformers movies do. Perception is reality.

 

This is probably the biggest reason.

If you want a real reason, it's cost savings. Megan or Rosie could have been as cheap as $50k to hire. Any of the other actresses named in this thread would cost at least $1 million but probably much more. Bay, Shia, and the SPFX are what take center stage. There's no point in casting a "real" actress in the role of the girlfriend.

Also, I doubt any of the other actresses would want the role. I would think their publicists would have them avoid it.

 

But again, that would only make sense if all the actors and actresses cast farther below the female lead, who gets the second most screen time and lines generally to Shia, were even farther less experienced and less expensive than Shia to cast. Not the case. You had Jon Voight as the Secretary of Defense in the first movie, John Tutturro as Simmons, later you had Frances McDormand as Charlotte Meiring and so on. They sprung the cash for John Malkovic in a cameo type role for crying out loud. They clearly wanted to find good actors for non-lead parts. But when it came to the "hot female lead" or even secondary hot females like the Australian chick or the pretender chick, the standard of investment and acting experience always suddenly went way down.

In other words we are in agreement that Aernaroth's take is probably the real reason. Bay is just a casting-couch type of guy plain and simple. Hell I'd probably do the same thing in his position to make myself feel pimp, but it has had a marked impact on public perception of the movie franchise.

 

First of all, Megan was an amazing choice. She was an unknown face, exactly what Transformers needed. It made the movie feel less like a regular blockbuster.

Also, whats wrong with bringing unknown actors in? Seriously, I dont get that. Other directors get praised for not using "superstars", but when Bay does it, hes the devil again. Thats bullshit. I like seeing new faces and all of them act just as well as superstar actors (seriously, its not that hard), even Rosie.

 

What other "unknowns" has Bay cast for their first "big break" in major roles in the Transformers films aside from the hot chicks in those movies? That's kinda the issue. Yeah I'm all for using unknowns. Cloverfield was a great movie showing what you can do with a cast of unknowns. That's one thing. It's another thing to cast a couple of unknown smoking hot model type chicks and surround them with known and accomplished actors like Jon Voight, Shia Lebouf, Frances McDormand, John Tutturo, Josh Duhammel etc. That's the distinction and the reason Bay takes heat for it. He *does not* cast unknowns or non-superstars exclusively, but when it comes to his hot female leads for Transformers, he has seemed hellbent on them being his "newly discovered" hotties alone rather than ones with as much acting experience as the people he hires into other roles.

And its not just Megan Fox and Rosie. Look at the first movie - Anthony Anderson had a way better resume and more acting experience than the blonde Australian chick he was teamed with in a secondary role.

 

I see where your getting at but the first roles many of these actresses he casts are really shallow roles.