Samsung TVTransformers director Michael Bay was left speechless while giving a talk at a Samsung CES event in Las Vegas Monday afternoon.
The 48-year-old moviemaker started by discussing what he aims to do when making movies, before stumbling on his words when the teleprompter had some technical difficulties.
After some fumbling and a few painfully awkward silent moments, Bay struggled to continue his remarks about 30 seconds in. Joe Stinziano of Samsung America attempted to get the situation back on track by asking the director about the curved screen on the television.
But the cue did little to help Bay find his place, and Bay eventually walked offstage saying a few times, "I'm sorry."
Stinziano remained cool under pressure and asked the audience to thank Bay for attending the annual event.
So what was to blame for the movie maker's abrupt exit?
Business Insider reporter Jim Edwards managed to catch Bay backstage and ask him what transpired in his words.
"What went wrong?" Bay asked. "The teleprompter."
Apparently, he skipped a line in the speech and completely lost his place after the screen continued to scroll down.
He later copped to the public-speaking fail on his blog.
"Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES—I was about to speak for Samsung for this awesome Curved 105-inch UHD TV. I rarely lend my name to any products, but this one is just stellar," he wrote, rather good-naturedly. "I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP's intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down—then I walked off. I guess live shows aren't my thing.
"But I'm doing a special curved screen experience with Samsung and Transformers 4 footage that will be traveling around the world."
No need to fear that Bay will be giving up on big-time spectacles any time soon.