Sitting stiffly in a Central London hotel, McG looks nervous — and you can’t blame him. This is a man who for the best part of a decade was arguably Hollywood’s most vilified film-maker, who was ridiculed for using a childhood nickname he admits is “hateable”, who brought the world those cloyingly anodyne Charlie’s Angels remakes.

Two years ago, he finally got his hands on a project he really cared about: Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the sci-fi series. After a lengthy courtship, he cast Christian Bale, “the most credible actor of his generation”, as John Connor, the leader of the human resistance in its war against the all-conquering android Terminators.

And then, in one of the most spectacular public-relations disasters of recent years, his star launched into an eye-wateringly abusive on-set rant at the film’s cinematographer, Shane Hurlbut, for straying into his eyeline during a scene. The meltdown was leaked to YouTube, where it has received more than 1.8 million hits, and has even been remixed as a dance track.

The 38-year-old director was left to pick up the pieces. “Christian would be the first to say that he behaved badly,” he says. Bale has admitted that he was “out of order beyond belief”. But the director’s job is “to create an environment of protection for him to behave any way he needs to”, he says. “That it got leaked is a violation of the sanctity of the film set. When Kate Winslet lets her robe drop in Titanic, you don’t want it ending up on YouTube. If the actor has to worry about those things, it can colour their choices on the set.”

That incident, along with another when Bale’s sister reported him to police after more alleged verbal abuse, is not a fair reflection, he insists. “He’s simply not a bad guy. He loves his wife, he loves his kid, he’s got a great sense of humour. He’s a passionate, passionate man.” Some point the finger at McG, suggesting that Bale would never behave that way with other directors. But, slightly dubiously, he puts it down to his authority, rather than the lack of it: “I’m largely to blame,” he says, “for creating an environment of great intensity. I encourage a fiery set, especially making a war movie. I like people to be very wound up.”

The most shocking thing about Bale’s meltdown was its length: almost four bile-filled minutes. Was that kind of thing common? “No, that was a . . . special one,” McG concedes. “He was very much in character,” he adds, a point borne out by the American drawl in which the Welsh-born Bale delivered his expletives. The scene he was shooting does sound pretty heavy: “He’s heading off into certain death, realising that the boy who will become his father is destined to die, which is going to doom all of humanity, and now he has to say goodbye to his pregnant wife.”

If McG’s reaction to Bale’s behaviour is restrained, perhaps it’s because he is no stranger to abuse himself. After directing music promos for the likes of Korn and Offspring, he made his feature debut in 2000 with the cloying candy-floss of Charlie’s Angels, and soon became a hate figure on film websites. One blogger described Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle as “probably the most jaw-droppingly awful big-budget movie I have ever seen”. Another reacted to McG’s attempt to remake Superman by accusing him of attempting to “rape my childhood”. Most sniggered at his JLo-style name.

As a self-confessed neurotic, who says he pulled out of the Superman project because his fear of flying prevented him travelling to the set in Australia, McG was inevitably affected by the vitriol. “I take it very seriously,” he says. “The Charlie’s Angels films are very particular in tone. But before you can be Johnny Depp, you’ve go to do your time on 21 Jump Street."

His name is no Hollywood affectation. He was born Joseph McGinty Nichol and was known as McG while growing up in Newport Beach, California, to distinguish him from his grandfather and uncle, who were both called Joe. “It’s a hateable thing to go by McG,” he admits. “But it’s real.” His mother was baffled by the criticism, as she is by his bachelorhood. “It’s tragic because my parents got married at 18.

They’re looking at me going, ‘What the f***’s wrong with you?’ Too much work has destroyed my personal life.”

When he was announced as the director of Terminator Salvation (the first of the franchise not to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger) the abuse reignited. He mimics: “ ‘A fourth Terminator film? That’s a terrible idea. McG is directing? That’s the worst idea I’ve heard in my life’.”

But he turned things around, convincing Bale to sign up by hiring Jonah Nolan, brother and screenwriting partner of Christopher, whom the actor had worked with on The Prestige and The Dark Knight, to make the script more character-driven. Previews suggest that he has done a great job. With its bleached landscapes and grungy, dystopian mood, the film is “the antithesis of Charlie’s Angels”, he says proudly.

“The earlier films I made as a child, and now I’m more of an adult.”

McG’s Terminator Salvation is released on June 3

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