Having delivered audiences films like The Rock, Armageddon, and Transformers, the only thing rivaling the spectacle of these on-screen adventures is filmmaker Michael Bay’s own personality, with star of his new film Ambulance, Jake Gyllenhaal, hilariously recounting an encounter he had with Bay while filming that involved some surprise helicopters. As opposed to his more CGI-heavy endeavors, Bay tried to keep the stunts and effects in the film a bit more practical, which required calling in some favors for last-minute upgrades to intense action scenes, resulting in the director telling Gyllenhaal it’s best to act first and ask questions later. You can see the impression in the video below, starting at 5:20.ย Ambulance lands in theaters on April 8th.
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“It wasn’t written in the script, but Michael Bay, we were both on our way — we were driving, he was driving, I was very clear about that, he was driving the ambulance back to where we were gonna get into our civvies,” Gyllenhaal recalled on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he appeared alongside costar Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. “And we get a call from Michael Bay, and he says, ‘Actually, you know what? I’ve got the L.A. river open, drive back.’ The actual L.A. river, he found a way into the L.A. river, and he said, ‘Just meet us there, we’re gonna shoot there.’”ย
He continued, “So we drove under a bridge and he came to us, he was like, ‘I got two helicopters, okay? Okay?’ That’s how he always [acts]. ‘Okay? And we’re gonna fly the two helicopters under the bridge, okay? So you just jump out of the thing, shoot at the helicopters, it’s gonna be great.’ I’m like, ‘How the f-ck did you get two helicopters out of the middle of nowhere?’ He’s like, ‘Don’t ask questions, we’re rolling!’”
The impromptu sequence took the stars by such surprise that Abdul-Mateen made sure to let his friends know the intensity he was partaking in.
“I’m just driving and driving and screaming and acting and I’m the driver and I call my boy on FaceTime while I’m driving, because you’ve got to. You have to,” the actor joked. “If Michael made executive decisions, I’m gonna make executive decisions.”
Ambulance lands in theaters on April 8th.
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