Thanks, Michael.
I'm so treating me like I'm an idiot because I am an idiot.
But how does it worked to put a film together like ambulance?
I mean, so much of the movie, of course, is spent
in the back of a speeding ambulance, which I gather is the magic of the movie.
So how did this come together?
How did this all work?
Well, you mean in terms of shooting or terms of what
script does a shooting in terms of.
Well, you know, when I got the script, I rejiggered it
because I'm looking for intensity.
I started adding more elements
to put pressure on this thing because you look at it like.
The way I tried to say it is like Das Boot, you know, the small, tight space
and how do you keep it interesting and you think, fuck this going to be hard.
Where are we going to get all these cameras?
How are we going to keep it interesting?
And so you got to put pressure on the outside and it's claustrophobia.
Inside, and it is claustrophobia being in that ambulance
and you're trying to do lifesaving things.
And we took that thing very fast around corners.
And there's a lot of metal.
You hit your head and they're like, you're banging around.
It's not.. it's pretty amazing.
You're trying to save a life, you know, in a thing that speeding that fast.
But listen, it just it was shot in 38 days.
There was an intensity to the shooting because we're shooting so much stuff
quickly.
It helped the energy for the actors
It's hard because, you know, when you're doing an action movie
that's intense, it's hard to keep that that that adrenaline up.
You know, for actors that get burnt out, it's it's tiring, believe it or not,
because you're breathing, you're stretching your body.
And I mean, they are great leading performances.
I mean, Yahya [Abdul Mateen II] and Jake [Gyllenhaal] balance each other out perfectly.
When you were casting, did you have to see them together
or did you just know that they worked? Well, that's the thing.
You have no idea, because modern Hollywood is everyone is always too busy.
Rehearsals are almost a thing of the you know, they did that
in the ancient times, prehistoric times when I work with Sean Connery.
Okay.
Uh, you know, Jake shooting something and.
Boom, right?
So, you know, their movies, but then you start talking to them as people.
You get them together for dinner, that's all with COVID, you know, you
you'd have a lot of action.
You got to get tested, you got to quarantine, whatever.
And then you get together.
But I try to do my first week is I try to
I try to shoot some of the beginning of the movie.
A little pizzazz in the movie, a little humour,
the movie, a little action of the movie.
So the whole crew that first week can see the tone of the movie because the movie
this is what I always tell young directors.
I produce it all takes its shape in that first week
because a movie becomes a life of its own because it makes sense.
So I look at the actors and I see what they're.
I told Jake, I want to shoot you like a movie star.
I going shoot you so charming.
And then there was this wry, uh, funny he had.
So I love improv.
And so he kept giving me and I kept throwing stuff at him. And,
you know,
he's a very interesting actor to work with.
So you mentioned just quickly your producing.
I just wondered when when does the decision happen for you
when you decide, right, this is going to be a film or project.
I'm going to take over the directing duties
and this is going to be one, I,
I sort of hire someone else to come on board and do it.
I mean, because, you know, just wondering what, what projects make you think.
Yeah, this, this is going to be one for me.
It was, it was interesting when I was young
because I was just doing big movie after a big movie about a big movie
and the agents just want to usually like a racehorse.
They just want to get money out of you.
And it's like they want to abuse you.
They want, well, we're just going to book you on big.
I'll give you more time anyway.
I know because I ramble a lot and I go off subject.
Okay.
And you and you got great lighting on you anyway, so.
Well, you know,
some of these ramble I get so, so little time.
So I said.
I said I want to start my own company.
And they're like, no, it's not possible.
I said, I don't want to just be a director for hire.
I want to help younger directors
break into the business you know, it's Jerry Bruckheimer, Don Simpson did to me.
They kind of put me under their wing and really helped me out.
And I wanted to try to do that and protect young directors from studios
and kind of be there and, you know, and kind of help supervise the cut.
And it's been fun. It's been fun. It's funny.
It's funny.
You you can tell some of these directors because they don't realise how hard it is
you got to be. It's like a sporting event.
Like some directors I work with, like one... one English guy goes in, This is exhausting.
I'm like, No shit, it's exhausting.
It's a marathon.
And you got to be up for everything, you know, every day.
And you know, it's a, it's a horse race and just they're very fine.
And because I saw this a day on the big screen
and it feels like a film that needs a big screen
and as many people as possible packed into theatres or watching it,
is that something you have to fight for?
These days with the rise of streaming?
Do you really have to make that call quite early on and say, Look,
I want this to play in cinema?
Yeah, and I've seen it play in big, big audiences now, like 350 people
and it's you watch the body language and their backs are all tense.
You know, that means there's, you know, when no one's moving
and you literally count the people who go to the bathroom, they're five out of 360.
That's very little.
Okay.
Um, it's when people start moving around, that's when you're there,
you're losing them somehow.
And it is a big cinema experience.
I think it because it's intense movie,
as the audiences have told me, they said it's very immersive,
which is good because it's got, if you go to it at most theatre, great
sound atmos sound on the ceiling now.
And uh,
I think it's a very involving movie and you know, you never know how it is
when you shoot them.
And it came out pretty intense and the performances were great.
So it a good time.
I agree. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Michael.
Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye.