Michael Pena Interview

June 3, 2005 8:22 AM
by [email]

Crash is a dark, pulsating look at racism and the collision of life in modern day Los Angeles. It is a thought provoking film that is guaranteed to make all but the emotionally reserved, cry at some point.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis, who also wrote Million Dollar Baby, the story concerns several characters (with roles played by Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and Don Cheadle amongst others), who interact over a period of 36 hours. Sometimes with love, sometimes with hate, but always with consequences.

Michael Pena’s role in Crash stands out for the emotional turmoil his character endures and the realism with which Michael portrays him. As Daniel, he is working father raising his five year old daughter Lara (played by Ashlyn Sanchez).

Indeed the scenes in Crash with his on-screen daughter, are some of the strongest emotional images from any film this year.

Michael Pena himself is a far cry from the person I was expecting. His energy is contagious as he bounds about the room making people laugh. Witty and entertaining, one would almost expect him to be acting in the latest hit comedy instead.

CJ:How did you hear about the role?

MP:My agent has a great taste in scripts and she sent it to me. I thought it was amazing and I was really excited about it so I met with Bobby Moresco, the producer and he told me to come back to meet Paul Haggis in a couple of weeks.

My brother had just had a baby girl and it was great because I was able to do some research for the part, as I don’t have any kids myself. I came back and met Paul and I felt really good about it. When they told me I got the part I just raised my arms like Rocky!

CJ:You seem very natural in the scenes with your on-screen daughter?

MP:Well I got to see my brother with his daughter. He is a well-kept guy, who likes to look good and I remember coming home after he had the baby and he was like (Michael stands up, messes up his hair and staggers around) ‘So good to see you’.

He was just wrecked and I thought what is going on here? He had shifted his attention to something more important.

So that was really interesting. I saw the way he talked to her and I also read a couple of books on how to raise children.

One of the things I learned was to talk to her like a normal person, not talk down to her, which changed everything, the whole dynamic. So I just talked to her like she was a buddy of mine, which she is, like a best friend and I really enjoyed that part.

CJ:There is an engaging story that you tell her in the movie. Was that in the script?

MP:Yes, it was actually word for word what was written. It was written in a beautiful rhythm. I want to be that kind of Dad. I am going to steal it if I have children.

Yeah my son or daughter will be like ‘Hey Dad, remember that story you told me about? It’s in your movie… before you had me’. It’s gonna be funny.

CJ:Everyone always says that you shouldn’t work with children or animals. Was it hard to work with a child?

MP:No, she was a pro. She knew every single word; she knew my dialogue, almost better than I did! I was like, what is going on here? Are you serious! I didn’t find it hard at all because she was attentive, she’s very smart and she’s a little sweetheart. She listened. I have worked with kids before. In ‘The Calcium Kid’ there are a group of kids and they were fun to work with.

CJ:You have some different emotional levels in the scenes with the two of you?

MP:There are a lot of really different elements. My character goes through a lot of really interesting levels with my daughter and what not and that’s what’s really fun about the role. He is not just a one-note character; he is really fleshed out due to Paul Haggis’s writing style.

CJ:How hard was it to achieve those emotional levels?

MP:It was draining shooting some of the scenes. I slept so well at the end of shooting because I was wrecked.

Some days it was lighter, which was cool. I liked the exercise. That’s what we live for as actors, the chance to do something with and emotional rollercoaster and a good story.

CJ:How realistic do you think the movie is in terms of racism in Los Angeles today?

MP:Well I think it’s a group, of course not everybody is like that, a lot of people are tolerant. I think there are small percentage of people who are actually like that but I think people are basically good, and this is just an instance, one writers point of view.

I haven’t met too much racism to be honest with you in Los Angeles. I think this movie could have been done in London, in New York, in any a big city. Los Angeles serves as a good backdrop because it has a lot of different ethnicities and different class cultures.

CJ:It seems like everyone hates everyone?

MP:Yeah, at some point right? I have tapped into that somehow for example, have you ever been mad when you have a bounced check or something and you think that it is the bank’s fault. I get really aggravated with that and a lot of people do to.

Yeah people get so stressed out with city living, the aggression comes out.

Exactly and there are wrong targets all the time. Like when you are in a relationship and you have a bad day at work and you take your stress home with you. A lot of that happens with exterior pressure and stress.

CJ:How did you feel when you saw the movie?

MP:It took me about six times to just watch the movie properly, because I was always waiting for my scenes. I was being kind of neurotic about them because there are huge stars in the movie that are legit and well known.

Maybe not neurotic, but I really didn’t want to mess up as I had a decent sized role. I was really happy with it and the emotional joyride. The movie goes so fast and it is injected with a lot of subtly, realness and understanding. It makes me cry every time.

CJ:Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?

MP:No, I was working at a bank and my best friend’s Mom said I should be an actor but I was making pretty good cash for a 17 year old, so I didn’t take it seriously.

Then she told me to go to an open call. I went and I booked the movie and I was like that’s pretty cool! So I went to Los Angeles right after that movie role and started booking work.

CJ:Where did you grow up?

MP:I grew up in Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago. There are a lot of ethnicities that live there.

It was a joy living there and hanging out with all my friends, all of who were from extremely different classes. I went to prep school so there were poor kids and rich kids.

I was one of the poor kids, well not so poor, not like oh woe is me, but that is just the way it was, It was a great place to grow up and have fun, there is so much opportunity there, I was a skateboarder, skating up and down around town around, it was fun.

CJ:And how do you like Los Angeles?

MP:I like Los Angeles because you can play sports all year around. You can play basketball all the time and I love golf, so I play golf quite a bit. The people are interesting, some of my friends are artists and it’s just great to be around all those talented people.

CJ:What are you working on now?

MP:I am doing The Shield with Glen Close, Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins and Kenny Johnson. There are also some movies in the works, and a potential TV show. So we’ll see, keep fingers crossed.

CJ:Has the movie you filmed with Orlando Bloom, ‘The Calcium Kid’, been released yet?

MP:No. We filmed it in London. That’s when I fell in love with London. I love the architecture. It’s amazing; you really get to see the history involved. Then there is the West End with the all theatres and the plays, which I loved.

CJ:Do you prefer films or TV?

MP:I like to work wherever the writing is good. Good writing inspires me as an actor. You want to say those words, you want to convey those works and behave like that person.

I enjoy it. Million Dollar Baby, Crash and then The Shield all have awesome writing.

CJ:What was it like to work with some of other actors in the movie?

MP:Don Cheadle makes it seem so seamless. He is so talented. I worked with him on ‘The United States of Leyland’ about four years ago.

I mean does that guy even try? Does he have to? Is he like Michael Jordan? I mean he makes it looks easy but he probably works really hard at it like Michael Jordan did.

It was amazing working with him and working with Sandra Bullock was equally as cool. One of the things that I found interesting about Crash was that no one in the film was all bad or all good.

I thought it was a little like dating. You meet a girl and you think its great and then you find that three months down the line, it’s not so great.

Or the other way around, some people are best friends, and then one day they start dating and then get married three months later. So there is a lot of that going on, you think you know somebody and then you find out that you were wrong about that person.

CJ:Your character seemed essentially a good person, whereas characters like the one Matt Dillon plays seem to have more ambiguity. You can’t decide about him?

MP:Yeah he had his definite twists as a character but then again, and this is what’s interesting, you didn’t see my character before this movie.

You saw him in the middle and you don’t know what happened later. I think I gave him quite a bit of history as far as the way he looks, the way he talks and the way he handles himself; to know that this man has been through some ordeals in his life. It’s funny everybody’s got their own little time capsule.

Crash is in theatres now.