We were collectively puzzled upon learning that John Malkovich and Francis McDormand had signed onto Transformers 3, a bit of news that found Mr. Atoz hypothesizing, “I can only assume that Bay has compromising video of both Malkovich and McDormand, possibly together.” No word on the veracity of that last tidbit, but Malkovich has, interestingly, spoken with MTV News to clarify his impressions of Michael Bay’s tyrannical, vaguely sexist reputation:

“I found Michael delightful,” he told us. “I found him fun, filled with ideas, many of them different than the take before, which I’m perfectly used to because that’s how I work anyway. I found his reputation, at least in my case, my experience, utterly unwarranted. But what do I know? Maybe he’s changed.”

Malkovich is no stranger to studio-driven action sets — he starred in “Con Air” and the upcoming “Red” — and noted how stressful it is for a director to manage a massive production with so many moving parts. He compared his role on the film, in which he plays LaBeouf’s cruel boss, to that of a relief pitcher in baseball.

“You also have to try and give them some relief from the stress of doing that every day, all day long, 14, 15 hours a day for months,” he explained. “I think with all the pre-planning and all the pre-production and all the storyboards and all the meetings, [Bay is] a filmmaker, so the film is really in his head. I think there are two kinds of people, then, who show up to work, whether they be actors or people on the crew: Either you’re trying to help him define and communicate what’s in his head, or you’re not — or you’re just there eating craft services.”

Bay reciprocated that creative respect and support to his cast, Malkovich said, including first-time actor — and Megan Fox replacement — Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. “I thought he was very good with [Rosie], very patient, very pleasant and helpful,” he said. “For her, that’s a strain, if you’ve never done that before.”

For purposes of this argument, we’ll assume that Malkovich never got all soapy while halfheartedly sponging the dirt from one of Bay’s fancy cars. Then again, no one (not even us) wants to see Malkovich in a bikini. The fact of the matter is that Bay’s got decades of experience working with actors and actresses, yet the only one complaining about his alleged assholery is Megan “You’re Just Jealous Of Me” Fox. Of course, I tend to doubt most things that come out of her ungrateful mouth anyway, but it’s nice to have some confirmation.