End of Watch Michael Peña Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi this is penny McLean with flick direct about to interview the wonderful Michael Pena of Enda watch Michael from this experience from the journey of this movie from the beginning to the end I was just on a ride strapped in with my seat belt the first scene with a car chase tell me what brought this what brought you to this film what drew you the first thing that Jimmy was the script the script was just amazing and it's the guy for that role training day you know and he brought you know fast and furious and u-571 and like all these really great abilities yeah I mean harsh times was was great as well I saw the movie and I couldn't believe the dialogue and the stuff that he made those guys see I was like wow really cool um and then so when I read it I was like whoa man I have I didn't know what to think of it cuz I haven't read a script like this in a while like it does follow the three-act structure but it's like there was a character piece you know I night and I was like wait a minute is this an action movie though it was an action movie but was also character pissen and then when I met I did I had to do it read with him and you know the director and Jake eyes like well how this could work this could be really cool so that's we you know after that we we had like five months of rehearsals and training you know to be a police officer a Ming and you know mixed martial arts and you know like up rehearsing as well and then I spent a lot of time with that only Martinez it plays my wife too so that it could look like a real marriage you know as it was like oh I just met you now let's do something and it was a it was a hard when it was definitely hard you know a lot of work but I think it paid off hopefully the I saw that you were doing boxing you were definitely a defenseman looks like you did some kickboxing yeah and then tell me about all that what's your favorite that you train for well the I gotta admit I'm like I I got hurt a couple times I do in the boxing because when you're sparring with somebody even if you start off trying to be light at the end of the day like if they get one good shot in and sometimes you're just trying to be fast to try to get in and you get hit and then you get mad and then you have to hit back and then its own and then you have two minutes two and a half minutes left and you're like oh man this is going to be bad and a couple times it was you know it was pretty pretty rowdy Jake kicked me in the legs I mean like the left leg one time really really hard got a really good kick in and I think I felt it for two months and then I started blocking with my shin which is you know if you have to block or kick with your shin that's I'd rather have the pain in my shin that my leg that's kind of a telling story but first day of first week of shooting you know I had a fight scene in the gun my nose busted and I was like wow okay this is a this kind of movie we're doing it's about as real as you can get did you feel like a real cop once he put the uniform on after your training I felt like I had the essence of the cop because of the way they talk to each other you know the way they they dash with each other and you know give each other crap sort of speaking and and you know I just put in so much work that by the by the like the third month I was like okay I think I'm ready to shoot let's go guys they're like oh we got two more months of this okay good feel good so um I felt like I was ready and I'm like I haven't felt like that too many times in my career I can think of maybe three or four times in like the last 17 years that I felt like I'm really ready to to do a roll I love the bond between you and Jake's characters your were like brothers besides co-workers and did it take a lot off you know off camera to bond like did get to know each other as friends then became like brothers on this scene it was weird i think we forced it a bit in the beginning because we didn't get along who's i think it's it's um you know we tried to but it's like it just wasn't working and it's like what is going on and there's pressure that comes with a movie you know you don't know what's you know you don't know what's gonna happen you're like can you do this and I think it's tits the hardest to play like a like a brother or like a like a young married couple I think that's the hardest to have like a real relationship and a real friendship you know but after the first two months we started getting to the rhythm we started opening up looking for me it's not the easiest to be like a man blow a blood is them you know like I'm not that guy was like pretty much quiet guy like for most of my life you know so it's like it was it was kind of tough but I felt like I learned a bunch in this movie I feel that from your character of being married and you're expecting a newborn and how you were giving like advice to a newcomer for Jake and a new relationship you sounded so comfortable in that role and when you were training with your wife how was it playing a high school love married cop and this poor wife was you know by yourself pregnant and yeah help me prepare for that it's so weird but like it's one of those things that you know when a script comes and then you're like ready to play this and it just falls on your lap at the most perfect time in your life which I don't I don't have any science to it but like I you know my kid was it till like two years old at the time and I was you know seeing him and I you know I didn't know that you could love somebody as much and I used a lot of that kind of love you know for for my wife and you know my baby to be and and there's no i don't know i think it opened me up to as a person so i can play this kind of role because i don't necessarily know if I could have done it for years ago um so it's like the stars align and you know for this kind of this kind of thing I think it was wonderful thank you so much and I was she the best all right guys