This is Jon.
This is Michael.
This is Jon's hair.
So nice to meet you. This is Michael. This is Michael. Michael Pena.
Yeah, I know you guys!
Michael Pena.
Are you having a tough day so far? Or is it okay?
It's tough.
You getting through it?
Super rough. No, just kidding. We're here talking.
Michael. Michael Pena.
So I'm here with the very talented Michael and Jon. Guys, lovely to meet you.
- Lovely to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
And welcome back to the UK! This is where you filmed the film, have you gone back and
had a roast dinner at one of the restaurants nearby?
No, you have roast on Sunday right?
Yes. Sunday roast.
It's Sunday. Today's Sunday.
No it's not.
Yes, it's Sunday.
Is it Sunday?
- Yeah. - Yes, it's Sunday.
We've been travelling so much, it's hard. We were in three different states in one day.
Jetsetters, aren't you?
Whaaaaam.
So, I loved the film. And I'm usually more of a Rom Com girl.
Oh, you like the Rom Coms?
I do, yeah.
This is kind of a Rom Com.
This is kind of different but I was absolutely captivated from the start.
Cool.
First of all, it was a very physically challenging role for both of you. How did you prepare
yourself? How tough was that military boot camp?
Well, I was 30 pounds overweight because I did this movie Cesar Chavez and I literally
did End Of Watch and then I did Cesar Chavez and all the re-shoots so I had to stay that
weight, didn't work out at all, it was brutal. I was like the fat kid at camp.
Were you? So what did you do? Just- you did a bit of boxing, didn't you?
Suffer. No, like even punching, it just wasn't there, you know what I mean? Like, I could do a little
bit of it and I could go in spurts but this guy could go forever. He was fighting this
guy's Sensei and they would just go at it, like, just go at it. Because you're tough,
you know?
Who was the toughest?
I'm gonna say Jon! Jon was tough!
It wasn't about- Everybody. Mikey's super tough. Everybody's tough in their own way
but it really wasn't about that, it was- I think the fighting was really about getting
to know each other.
What happened back there. That's every day. Don't get to close to anyone.
Boot camp was especially- It was really good for that. Because everybody broke. You had
two hours of sleep a day and you woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning and you had to exercise
4-5 times a day and everybody broke and the other guys were actually bringing us all up,
whoever wasn't breaking that day.
No, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
No, you're funny dude.
You sitll like touching each other, don't you?
No, this guy-
Do you wanna hold hands? That's fine.
This guy, I swear to God-
I love holding hands with Mike. I mean, look, I grew with him. It's just boot camp is really
set up for us to become a unit, become a family. We all broke like Mikey said and we kept failing
over and over and over.
I just said that, dude.
Yeah, what Mikey said.
Now, I personally think Brad looked quite pretty in the film. His hair-
Really?
It looked quite preened and, yeah. I I don't know if you thought that.
I always think he looks pretty. I think Mikey looks really pretty in the film too.
What was he like to work with?
I mean, at the end of the day, he's like regular dude in a weird way. You know what I mean?
Yeah, he's a movie star but he did everything that we did, there was no star treatment.
Did he have name, Top Gun? Was that what people called him on set?
- No, no, no, Top Gun's a movie. - Not Top Gun, just Top.
Oh, just top, okay.
Yeah, it's a different-
That wouldn't make sense.
No, it was- That's just a term a lot of people call their TC, but yeah, it just sort of came
naturally, we just started calling him top.
We should have called him Fight Club or something like that. That would have been so cool in
the movie.
And Shia went to quite extreme lengths, pulling out his teeth and scratching his face, what
did you guys think of that?
Well, everybody was commited, to be honest with you. This guy, we were in Henley, and
on Saturday afternoon and you'd see this guy reading the script, he read it every week,
right?
Yeah yeah.
Yeah, so everybody had their own- everybody was fully committed. I didn't pull out a tooth
or scratch my face but I was committed.
Everybody was fully committed. This was the kind of job, and I think that David Ayer just
demands that kind of commitment from the beginning. He puts you through- That boot camp and that
pre-production was brutal. And then you start shooting and by the time you start shooting,
you feel like you have nothing left and that was exactly what he was going for, so I think
that the level of commitment was just across the board. We really tried to stay in a place
of darkness and despair and pushing away all creature comforts for, really, eight months
and I think that that takes its toll and we pushed each other to commit and I think any
time- that's really when we were a family, we really wanted to stay in this world.
There's not enough fight, there's not enough fight. Come on!