In a recent interview with the South China Post, director Michael Bay spoke about his experience filming almost a quarter of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction in Hong Kong and why locals felt the need to apologize to him.

Bay recently wrapped shooting 30 to 35 minutes of the two-hour blockbuster in China. The filming took place over 10 days and was interrupted by unexpected events -- the crew was assaulted on two different occasions by locals looking to extort money from the filmmakers and an explosion at government headquarters filmed for the movie was met with mass protests.

Michael Bay Said Assaulter with Air Conditioner on 'Transfomers 4' Set Was Like a Zombie

"It was kind of scary. The Hong Kong crew was embarrassed. They even considered paying him five times more but I said no," Bay said of the assaulter who attempted to attack him on the set.

He also went on to speak about how those few notorious men were not representative of Hong Kong locals. The director said when people in the area heard about the incident, they apologized to him for what he had to go through.

"In the restaurants, in the hotel, I must have 30 people coming to me saying 'I'm so sorry'. But it was such a silly incident," Bay said.

Producer Loreanzo di Bonaventura corroborated Bay's point: "They are very concerned about our feelings. We met 1,000 people and there were three idiots."

Seems like Bay had a mixed experience filming in the Hong Kong, accepting that there were various challenges but he would still like to return to the city.

"Hong Kong was very hard," said Bay. "I've had difficult locations in my life. But shooting in the market with so many people watching ... it made it very challenging."

Bay also suggested that it was a pleasant experience and that Hong Kong was a very "textured, visual city," adding that he intended to return to shoot at least one more film there.

Watch Bay part of the interview in this clip:

Tags
Transformers 4, Michael Bay, Transformers: age of extinction