Supa-Star Michael Peña began his Brisnova panel by discussing his newest project, Subversion, which was being filmed in Queensland. “I’m on the Gold Coast filming a movie [at Village Roadshow Studios] with Chris Hemsworth, who was in a bunch of Marvel movies too. It’s a submarine movie and you’ll see it on Amazon next year, so that will be cool.” He teased us with his unofficial synopsis of Subversion: “We’re in the submarine and we save the day. He’s Chris Hemsworth, he saves the day a lot,” he laughed.
Speaking of saving the day and Marvel films, Peña played the fan-favourite Luis in the Ant-Man films, known for his incomparable storytelling skills and lovable demeanour. What were the challenges he faced when playing Luis?
“Oh, my gosh, so in the second Ant-Man, the flashback when they give me the truth serum. I kept asking [Marvel], ‘When is it going to be ready?’ They kept rewriting it and rewriting it. I wanted to learn it because I wanted to be able to say whatever comes to mind and then go back to the script. I think they gave me like a day, and I was like, ‘Five pages in one day?’ I kept messing it up, and they were laughing, for the wrong reasons. But that was super, super fun,” Peña smiled.
“Come to think of it, they did the same thing in the first Ant-Man! Me recapping the whole caper wasn’t in the first script; they were like, ’Here you go, Mike, we’re shooting it tomorrow.’ If you see the movie again, you’ll see me sweating a bit, that’s why! There was so much dialogue!”
Photo by Ali Stevenson
Peña has worked with superstars such as Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Martian and End of Watch, respectively, but is that something he looks for when choosing his projects? “To be honest, I mainly chase the directors, like I think Christopher Nolan would be awesome to work with. Paul Thomas Anderson does some really cool stuff. I like Wes Anderson movies too; they’re very particular, and Spike Jonze did Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. I would love to work with those directors.”
This is not Peña’s first time visiting and filming in Queensland. He recalled his role as Cole (Dora’s father) in the live-action film adaptation of Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer, 2019’s Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which was also filmed here. “It was really cool. When I first got to set, Isabela Merced was like, ‘Hi.’ I was like, ‘Wow, this is Dora.’”
“I love writing stuff that inspires me, giving ideas to the writers. I had one idea.” He elaborated, “[Me and Eva Longoria] played scientists [who are also Dora’s parents] who have been in the jungle a long time. Our daughter is going to the city, so I’m giving her a warning about the dangers of raves. It became a meme because I started doing this,” he started beatboxing some totally tubular beats. “That’s what I remember, and I can’t believe that stayed in the movie.”
He reminisced about his career and how it started. “I never thought about being an actor. I was in the football team, wrestling team and track team. I was the captain of those things, but only because I studied them. I knew all the moves. I could have gone to college or university for wrestling.
“I wanted to get into finance, which is not like acting, but then my best friend’s mom said, ‘You’re really good at imitating people, why don’t you try acting?’ I thought, ‘There’s going to be more than just that.’ And she was right! I just imitate people; that’s my whole thing,” Peña joked. “Once I started, I fell in love with acting so much. I thought it was awesome. If anybody here wants to be an actor, definitely pursue it because I would do it for free. If you have that mentality, I think it’s a win-win situation,” he affirmed.
“Crash marked something very special. Before that movie, and before it won the Oscar, I was broke. I had just started dating Brie, who’s right there,” he raised his index finger to point out his beloved wife in the crowd. “She was not allowed to go into my apartment because it was so small. She was like, ‘Let’s go to your apartment.’ I was like, ‘I like your house.’
“[Daniel Ruiz] was a really cool character, a good guy, and a Latino in LA who was a three-dimensional character. Those are my takeaways, I think about [Crash] very fondly,” he grinned.
Peña showed Supa-Fans that a creative mind and a positive attitude can take one far in their career and personal journey!
Lead photo by Ali Stevenson
