Ambulance stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza Gonzalez open up about working with Michael Bay
When it came to casting, Bay revealed to the crowd that he wasn’t previously familiar with Abdul-Mateen II. “[Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer] suggested I look at Yahya, and I’m like, ‘What’s a Yahya?’ He goes, ‘[He’s] an actor.’ I said, ‘I’ve never heard [of him],'” Bay recalled. “So, I see his stuff, and I’m like, ‘That guy is gonna be a movie star. I want to work with him.'”
“I knew that it was a short and fast shoot — I’d be working with Michael Bay and Jake Gyllenhaal, and I was just excited about that opportunity,” Abdul-Mateen toldat the time that this came in my box. This was pitched to me as Michael’s small movie. He said it’s not about action; it’s about tension. And I knew that he would dress the world outside of the ambulance, but I was really interested in what was going on inside of the ambulance, and that’s where we see a lot of the tension play out.
He continued, “I’ve had the privilege of being able to make many movies, and I have had the privilege to work with some incredible filmmakers. The one thing I’ve learned is that they all speak in different languages because they’re all such individuals. So that’s basically what it was about, was getting to work with [Bay.]”