Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a brief chat done with Michael Peña during the OBSERVE & REPORT day back in March. I also had interviews with Seth Rogen and director Jody Hill, which will all be hitting tonight. Peña is known more for his dramatic work in LIONS FOR LAMBS and WTC, but he’s one of the many surprises of the film. His Mike Tyson-ish accent (apparently culled from a viewing of AMERICAN PIMP) and body language are so crazy that you can’t help but laugh. I brought my little brother to sit in on these interviews, something I don’t often do, but he was really interested in this series of chats, one right after another. He’s 18 and most people are surprised that we’re brothers when seeing us together. We’re very different (he’s got a skinny, long hair rocker thing going for him and I don’t) on the outside, but he’s been raised geeky. Now you know why Peña brings up my brother at the beginning of the chat. Anyway, without any further ado, here’s the interview!
Michael Peña: [Looking at the recorder] Oh my God. Can you talk to Spock from here?
Quint: I don’t think so, but it definitely makes it look like I’ve spent money, right?
Michael Peña: Oh yeah, dude. Awesome.
Quint: Those are actually made for people who go and record concerts, like the big hall orchestral concerts.
Michael Peña: So, I sound really good right now? That’s cool, man.
Quint: It’s a big step up. Right before that it was the little micro cassette tapes. I had to have this big machine that had the sewing machine foot pedal thing for transcribing, so it’s next generation…
Michael Peña: [Looking at Quint’s Brother, Tony] So, you guys are brothers? You don’t look alike.
Quint: We’re half-brothers.
Michael Peña: Really? That’s pretty rad.
Quint: He has a metabolism and I don’t.
Michael Peña: I want a metabolism. I’ve got to stay in shape all of the time.
Kraken: What’s really strange is I’m the father.
Michael Peña: What’s even weirder is I’m the mom! (laughs)
Quint: The screening went great last night.
Michael Peña: It played well. I saw the final cut and Jody was just diligent with editing, because with the editing, you really have to be delicate to the timing, like one second off and it doesn’t work.
Quint: That could ruin a scene and a scene can ruin a movie.
Michael Peña: Yeah and he’s really good at editing for whatever reason and I think when I saw it by myself it was playing really well. I was laughing like crazy. I was with two other people and I was like “God I hope people laugh as much as I do.”
Quint: You weren’t laughing because you like everybody and just want to watch it succeed.
Michael Peña: Yeah, but if it’s not funny, then it’s not funny. You can’t laugh. That’s like your stomach hurting without getting punched in the stomach, it doesn’t happen unless you have some other… [To Kraken] I totally blinked on that one brother. You caught me in a dream like state.
Quint: “He was meditating.”
Kraken: I’m a master at getting strange in between pictures.
Michael Peña: Go ahead and take this one, dude.
Kraken: There we go.
Michael Peña: But, dude the house just rocked yesterday man.
Quint: The energy in that room was crazy. DRAG ME TO HELL was the only other time that I felt that at this SXSW.
Michael Peña: When was that? This week?
Quint: Sunday night. It was a midnight thing, Sam Raimi’s first horror movie since THE GIFT and his first crazy horror movie since ARMY OF DARKNESS.
Michael Peña: You know what the thing is? I’m glad, because Jody is a really good director. He did a really small movie, THE FOOT FIST WAY, which I loved, and it was just so interesting, but it was my kind of humor. I just started reading comic books and stuff and a lot of that kind of humor is… like a little bit, you know what I mean… I don’t even know how to explain it, but it’s in that zone. It’s definitely in that zone, so I’m glad that people got to see his directing and what we all knew is he’s just an awesome director.
Quint: What he seems to bring to it is it’s not just funny, but it also has something behind it, where it’s a little bit of emotion, but it’s not like the Apatow stuff that’s more John Hughes-ish, where the heart is on the sleeve and it’s very sincere. These movies are very sincere, too, but it’s also got that seventies vibe to it.
Michael Peña: It’s got that seventies porno vibe.
Quint: It’s gritty and he seems to rebel and there are these great characters that don’t have a filter…
Michael Peña: It’s crazy, but it’s still really loose and relaxed, like an Apatow, but instead of… It’s just different. I’ve never really seen anything like it, man. This one gets a little dark I think just to set you up. That’s the feeling that I get, like “Whoa” and then you get shocked and I really like it man, but it was really awesome working with the guy, man. He’s just a real… Have you done an interview with him yet?
Quint: I just did.
Michael Peña: He’s a funny dude. Once you get him nice and comfortable, he’s a really funny dude.
Quint: He seemed really laid back.
Michael Peña: My favorite stuff is when after we would do a scene, he would come in and be like “Okay Mike, now say some shit like… I fucking love you man! I fucking think you’re the best, man. I just want the best for you Ronnie… I just want you to succeed so much man…” You know what I mean? He gets you in such the mindset and sometimes I didn’t understand what he was saying and I was like “Alright, I’ll treat it like a drama” and then when you mouth the words, you are like “Oh, he’s a step ahead of me.” Him and Seth… because they are really into comedy, it’s like “Oh God, I’ve got a lot to learn.”
Quint: You mentioned last night… I love the origin of the accent by the way…
Michael Peña: AMERICAN PIMP?
Quint: Yeah and it feels so perfect for the character. Once you said that, everybody in my row was just clapping. How did Jody and the producers react when you sprung it on them? Was there anyone going “Oh, I don’t know” or was everybody like “That’s perfect.”
Michael Peña: I went in on it and was like “You know what? I’m going to go big. Not too big, but like I’m going to go in with some real character that’s kind of effeminate, but you could tell that he wants to be a pimp.” Those guys for some reason are kind of effeminate but they “rule the women” in their minds, so I went in there and didn’t know what to expect and Jody uncharacteristically was like “I’ve got to put you more into the movie man.” I only had one scene originally.
Quint: Really?
Michael Peña: Yeah, and after the audition, like right after, he was like “Man, I’ve got to put you in more. I’ve got to find out where,” so we just tried a bunch of stuff.
Quint: What was the one scene that you had before?
Michael Peña: It was the montage.
Quint: The training montage?
Michael Peña: Yeah, because basically he says “There’s nothing really good about this at all man.” There’s a little speech where I say “You have got to follow me.” That was mainly the scene.
Quint: I know a few people who are close to this group and I’ve heard a lot of stories about how fun these sets are, especially when Seth is around.
Michael Peña: But he’s also really cool man, like you can get on a set and some times it’s competitive, just being honest, where the person really wants to shine, but I swear Seth is just as good saying a punch line as he is at setting you up. He’s a master, like he sets you up so well, so that if you are at all funny, it’s going to turn out okay. I think that that’s why his movies do well, because he’s good at doing the punch lines, but he’s also really good at setting you up. For instance the intro, “Hi, I’m blah blah blah and this…” he turns back and really sets me up to do something, anything, and it’s just cool. Even that little part it’s like “Oh, it’s my moment… tada and that’s it.”
Quint: I think it’s also a really good mark of a film, a comedy especially, when they are able to establish every character and not just the lead and have them be extremely memorable. What I love is you have the Yuan Twins, you, Anna Faris and a dozen more people that have their moments.
Michael Peña: Everybody has their moment to shine. Anna has two sequences or actually the one sequence that’s like the date. The Yuan Twins have their gun sequence. I have my montage and then there’s like three major… There’s one with Ray Liotta. I didn’t even think of it, man, but you are right, everybody has a little segment that still keeps the story going, but…
Quint: But they don’t feel like one-offs. It feels like it’s all part of what’s going on and that’s actually a testament to Jody, because not a lot of people can do that. You can have moments like that in movies, but sometimes they just feel like separate from the story.
Michael Peña: Yeah. It’s funny, because I don’t feel like I have a big part in the movie, but people were coming up to me yesterday when I was at the thing and were like “I loved this part and I love that part” and I’m like “Oh my God, I can’t believe they remember.” Some people were coming up to me and it’s like “This thing? Pfft.” [Strikes a ‘yeah, what?’ pose from the film] I was like “How do they remember that? It’s a two hour movie, you know?”
Quint: I think there’s going to be fielding requests for the accent for a good long while.
Kraken: And the pose on the escalator.
Michael Peña: Yeah dude, I don’t remember doing that, so that’s the best. Jody was like “Just say some shit man, like fucking what’s up or damn.” He actually had “Dayumn” in there dude. That was pretty rad. Hopefully there’s a sequel. How could he make a sequel, like TAXI DRIVER PART 2?
Quint: What I want is a DVD with multiple commentary tracks and you doing a commentary in character.
Michael Peña: Ohhhh.
Quint: I’d also love a track with the Yuan twins describing how to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Michael Peña: They were serious about that dude.
Quint: I know and that’s why I want to hear it, because I want pointers in case it happens.
Michael Peña: “Go to a hardware store…”
Quint: So yeah, campaign for that commentary track.
Michael Peña: That would be awesome. There’s a lot of stuff that we shot that was kind of funny, but didn’t end up in there because it made no sense with the story and I knew that going in and I think there’s three scenes that are pretty funny with me and Seth that are… There’s one with Jesse Plemons where I felt like the worst actor of all time, because I just kept cracking. It’s bad when somebody makes you laugh, but it’s even worse when you make yourself laugh, like you try to laugh it off, like FAMILY GUY with Osama Bin Laden and he’s like “Oh bro, let me laugh it off. Don’t look at me, look away. Look anywhere, just don’t look at me. I will kill all…” and then he cracks up. I love that shit, dude.
Quint: Cool, well thanks so much for talking to me man. I really appreciate it.
Michael Peña: Absolutely man! Right on.
Of the three, Peña’s chat was the most truncated, but he was obviously excited about the movie and his energy was apparent in the room and, I hope, on your screen as well. Keep an eyeball out for my chats with Jody Hill and Seth Rogen to hit this evening! -Quint quint@aintitcool.com Follow Me On Twitter
