Michael Pena & David Ayer (INTERVIEW)
Michael Pena & David Ayer
The “Fury” Interview
with Kam Williams
The Sound and the “Fury”
Michael Pena was born
in Chicago on
January 13, 1976 to immigrant
parents from Mexico
. After graduating from high school, he answered an open casting call for the
sequel to To Sir, with Love. He landed a role, relocated to L.A., and the rest is history.
Michael
went on to deliver memorable performances in Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Babel and The Lincoln
Lawyer. He also landed lead roles in World
Trade Center
and End of Watch, and played the title character in the biopic about Cesar
Chavez released earlier this year.
Here, he and End of
Watch director David Ayer talk about reuniting to collaborate on Fury, a World
War II adventure starring Brad Pitt.
Kam
Williams: Hi David and Michael, thanks for the
interview. I really appreciate it.
David Ayer:
Right on!
Michael Pena:
Thanks, Kam.
KW:
I loved Fury! Great job! Did you read my blurb about the
movie?
DA:
Not yet.
KW:
I described it as a WWII
tank flick you don’t so much watch as endure. Picture the sheer intensity of
Saving Private Ryan coupled with the visual capture of The Thin Red Line, the
harrowing claustrophobia of Das Boot, and the utter insanity of Apocalypse Now.
MP:
I’ll take that.
DA:
That’s pretty damn good, bro!
KW:
I’ll be mixing in readers’ questions with some of my own. Attorney Bernadette
Beekman asks: David, what is the most significant memory from your military
service which continues to influence your writing today?
DA:
Holy cow! Nothing I would care to say in public. [LOL]
Actually, there’s nothing I could say in public, because of my security
covenants. My proudest moment was being awarded my submarine warfare
qualifications pin in the Philippines
after a lot of intense studying.
KW:
David, given that you served in the Navy, where did the idea for Fury come
from?
DA:
I had one grandfather who was in the Army in World War II,
and my other grandfather served in a Navy submarine during the war. And I had
an uncle in the Army Air Corps. But I’ve always been fascinated by the war in Europe. And I kinda realized that no one had done a tank
movie about it. It was sort of long overdue. So, I hope this becomes the
classic American tank movie, the Top Gun for the Armored Corps.
KW: I think you achieved that given
how you make the audience feel like they’re right inside the tank and have us
pulling for the crew at every turn. I was sweating bullets.
DA:
It’s really intense.
KW:
Bernadette asks Michael: Having appeared in multiple Ayer-written works, do you
have an affinity for an Ayer script. Do you feel a certain rhythm to the
dialogue in each film?
MP:
Yeah, of course I loved Training Day and Harsh Times. I remember
then reading the script for End of Watch and thinking: this is a great role,
dude! I studied my entire life to make almost every performance as if I were
doing a documentary. That’s my motivation. And David writes in that style, so I
went, “Oh, this is so cool. I can actually delve in.” Not every director likes
that. After I read the dinner scene, I couldn’t wait to do it. I remember on
the day of the shoot, he asked me whether I wanted to warm up. But I said, “No,
I’ve been rehearsing it for five months. Let’s go now!”
KW:
Bernadette asks: Michael, do you have a preference for roles in a certain
genre? Is there a type of role you tend to seek to play?
MP:
I didn’t go to acting school. Because I didn’t have a lot of
cash, the way I taught myself how to act was by watching all of the early
Inside the Actor’s Studio episodes. I watched Marlon Brando in A Streetcar
Named Desire and Robert De Niro’s Mean Streets a hundred times. I prefer films
that are very, very real, like Crash, End of Watch and now Fury. I just enjoy
the basic human drama.
KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier
asks: Michael, How did you prepare for the role of Gordo?
MP:
It was tough because, although it was all there on the page,
I wanted to represent more of a generational figure. So, I took from a bunch of
other people. But as for the voice, David would talk to me in Spanish in kind
of the same rhythm, because I could easily lose it, especially since we were
filming in England
where I was surrounded on the set by so many British accents. So, I needed a
little more help on this one than usual. To me, the voice was a critical aspect
of the character, because Gordo has a different sense of humor. He’s kind of a
simple man. I thought about the way my dad is. He grew up in Mexico, and was
a farmer. He’s a very simple, quiet, brooding man.
KW: Patricia also asks: Michael, You
recently portrayed Cesar Chavez?
MP:
He means an awful lot, to be honest with you. My parents
were farmers who came to the U.S.
for the American Dream. They still grew cucumbers and peppers and corn in the
backyard, because we didn’t have much money. They came to this country because
people had taken advantage of them in Mexico. And here comes this small
man by the name of Cesar Chavez who actually fought for their rights. It wasn’t
the easiest thing for him to do, to speak up on behalf of people who didn’t
have a voice. And he actually took it upon himself to do just that, and he made
a big difference. So, it was an honor for me to be given an opportunity to
portray him.
KW:
Margaret Van Dagens says: You are both from
the Midwest, and both originally from Illinois,
my home state. I'd like to know how being from the Midwest
has influenced your work, and whether being from there gave you a feeling of
camaraderie as you collaborate on projects. This is not as superficial a
question as it may sound. I feel that being from the Midwest
has made a great difference in my work.
MP:
Honestly, I didn’t even know David was from the Midwest until this minute.
DA:
Yeah, I bounced out of there as a kid, and pretty much grew
up in L.A.
KW:
Harriet Pakula-Teweles asks: David, how do you walk the fine line between gore
and gripping?
DA:
You don’t want to take your audience out of the movie, and
too much of the wrong thing can do that. Violence and violent images obviously
have a strong effect. If it’s gratuitous, it ain’t good. It has to have a
reason. For me, especially in this film, violence has consequences. And the
violence is part of the environment this band of brothers lives in. These guys
are like a family trying to survive in a violent environment. So, every violent
act is reflected in these characters. And they have to process them and come to
terms with them.
KW:
Harriet has one for you Michael. She says: You’ve just done a biopic and an
action film based on true stories—how is the preparation different from roles
based on fiction?
MP:
I don’t really think there is much of a difference. I try to
do the same kind of work from picture to picture. The only time it’s different
is when I’m doing comedy. Then, the main focus is on making people laugh. And
then, secondarily, you try to find the drama in it. I grew up in the ghetto,
and I remember not realizing I lived in the ‘hood until I moved out of there.
Then, I was like, “Oh man, I used to live like crap. Holy cow!” The crackheads
and heroin addicts weren’t cool, but other than that I had so much fun growing
up.
KW:
Harriet also asks: With so many classic films being redone, is there a remake
you'd like to direct, David?
DA:
That’s hard for me to say. Because I’m a writer, it’s easy
for me to generate material for myself. My big advantage as a director is that
I’m also a writer. The way that markets work now, everything has to be PG-13,
and you have to kind of go for a broader audience. So, the problem with remakes
is that a lot of what made an original special can get watered down or lost.
KW:
Thanks again for the time, guys, and best of luck with the
film.
DA:
Alright, Kam.
MP:
Absolutely!
To see a trailer for
Fury, visit:
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