One of the summer's most intriguing films would have to be Michael Bay's The Island, a film about two clones on the run searching for their original counterparts. After the press was tantalized with a 45 minute sneak preview of the thriller, stars Michael Clarke Duncan and Djimon Hounsou along with director Michael Bay, talked about the experience of making this $100m thriller and our own Garth Franklin was there.

Michael Bay: Well, you remember I talked about those beers?  Wel...I have a hung- hangover now. You know, get through the night.  You know, nerve wracking period.  But I gotta get back to the edit room. but the second half of the movie, that's when it really kicks in.  You didn't even see it up to the halfway point.

Question: Michael Bay,  in keeping with all the other films that are out there, and even the work that you've done as far as technology goes, and CGI and all the things that you explained last night, how hard or difficult is it in pre-production and actually doing the filming to really pay attention to what's going on with the actors, the chemistry between, you know, Scarlett and Ewan and their not touching, the love, cause love is making sure the green screen is doing what it's doing with each explosion bigger than the last.

Michael Bay: I mean, there is not a lot of CGI.  There's, there's maybe 250 shots in this movie and if you notice in the movie there's a lot of sets.  And when you're on sets it's a whole space for an actor to work and, I have green screen people and all that stuff.  I'm one of those directors that always stays on the set so when I bring the actors out... (laughter      r).  Sometimes... I mean, sometimes I'll be talking to her and I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait, we need to move that over there!", and then, "Yes, Scarlett".  You've gotta be multi-tasking, I guess, when you direct.  But I love working with the actors.  I really do.  I mean, that's the gold of the movie, you know.  We would do a lot of that.  We would try to come up with things.  you know, there's a very funny scene - ah, I should say with Buscemi we would try different things on the spur of the moment.  I shoot very fast so it gives me ability to try different stuff.

Question: Michael Clarke Duncan, were you attracted to the character, the project or were you just feeling like, 'okay, I liked working with Michael Bay before so if he asks me I'll go work with him again'?

Michael Clarke Duncan: A little bit of both.  He called me and asked me if I'd do him a favour and, I, I really don't turn Michael Bay turn down.  He's very persistent, and he uses a core group of people that he depends on a lot and I was, ah, very fortunate that he called me.  But, he knows that right now he's in a big debt to me because - he owes me big time - and that's really why I did it so I could have something to hold over his head.

Question: You did a great job of sort of getting across real mortal fear in the scenes we saw last night, and you're a big guy and I'm wondering what you drew upon to actually, you know, portray that kind of physical fear?

Michael Clarke Duncan: Well, actually it was very funny.  When I came to Michael - before we did the scene - I said, "Do you want me to cry?  Do you want me to show any emotion?" and he went...

Michael Bay: 'No, no, fuck that, you're a fellow.  I mean, you're not a sissy!'

Michael Clarke Duncan: So I went back and we went down this long hallway and I told one of the guys, I said, "He's gonna want me to cry".  I said, "I know he is".  And I just started thinking of 'if this were actually happening to me, if I was actually in this situation, I wake up with all these medical things hanging out of me' - and I just started getting the tears up.  And ten minutes later he gets on the bullhorn...

Michael Bay: 'Hey, get Michael some fucking tears!'

Michael Clarke Duncan: I said I'm all ready to go, Michael.

Michael Bay:    He's a storyteller.

Michael Clarke Duncan: I said, I'm ready to go.  Let's shoot the scene.  I already have the tears because I knew he was going to do that.  That's how it came about.

Michael Bay:    Remember in Armageddon when he was, he was...

Michael Clarke Duncan: You made me cry then, too.

Michael Bay:    He was in the psych office - the guy getting his psych evaluation.  I said, "Mike, they want... I want you to cry".  We're just coming up, making it up on the set.  He goes...

Michael Clarke Duncan: That was my first big movie - to do me like that.

Michael Bay: ...and he was 200 pounds heavier than he is now, right?

Michael Clarke Duncan: Yeah, and I started crying.

Michael Bay: No!  You, you kept saying...

Michael Clarke Duncan: Yes, I did!

Michael Bay: You was like:  "I can't cry, I can't cry!"

Michael Clarke Duncan: I did... but did I cry though?

Michael Bay: I said, "Mike, that's a charm, that's a charm!"

Michael Clarke Duncan: I - ah - ah.  Next question.

Question: I did want to change the subject slightly.  Speaking of weight...

Michael Clarke Duncan: Yes.

Question: ...you have lost weight.

Michael Clarke Duncan: Yes.

Question: What's up with that?

Michael Clarke Duncan: I lost about 90 pounds.  I just felt that I was getting into a niche of always playing the big guy roles and I didn't... I didn't want my career to go that way; I wanted to do some other things.  I wanted to, you know, do a romantic comedy, do a lead or something like that, and I knew that people wouldn't believe that a 350-pound guy could be that.  So I just took it upon myself.  I looked in the mirror one day and my stomach didn't look sexy at all so I started to run and work out very hard, and tried to get to a point where if they look at me now and they say, well, can we see you in a tank top or some, you know, thong or something, I can wear that.

Question: Has someone suggested that to you?  Has someone suggested that to you, that you lose the weight?

Michael Clarke Duncan: No.  No.  Well, my management team did, which I totally thought was really ludicrous that they even... that they'd even bring that to me.  But, it was funny, I went out for The Longest Yard, and I walked in the office looking like I do now and I was feeling great, and I had taken kick boxing and Jujitsu, and I walked in there and they said, "Hey, uh, would you mind gaining 50-pounds?"  And I said, "Man, I'm gonna be the first person in line for your movie when it comes out."  I said, "But, I'm not going down that road again". 

Question:       Djimon?

Djimon Hounsou: Yes.

Question:       Ah, tell me a little bit about your character in the movie, because we only saw a clip where you seem to be a policeman, either in the outside world - or are you a policeman from the clone facility?

Djimon Hounsou: No.  I'm... I'm a Special Force... the head of the Special...

Michael Bay:    French Special Forces.

Djimon Hounsou: The French Special Forces who is, you know, hired to take care of the escapees.  Yes.  So, yeah... I'm not a clone and...

Question: So you have a lot of action... you have a lot of action there?

Djimon Hounsou: A lot of action.  But you haven't seen me yet so... yeah, most of it is coming later. 

Michael Bay:    But there's a great... there's a great character arc to Djimon's character - people that have seen the movie...

Djimon Hounsou: Yeah, but we don't want to tell them that...

Michael Bay: I know... we... I won't, I won't say.  But he's one of the more favourite characters in the movie.  Makes a very strong showing in the last hour. 

Question: Djimon, have you also been asked maybe to lose your accent, to change it up a little bit. 

Djimon Hounsou: Oh, most definitely.  I mean, it happens all the time.  But then again, you know, you get a job and the job you get, you know, they're going to be asking you to, you know, to, ah, make your accent heavier.  So I kind of like... first of all, it's not a (inaudible) - it's just the nature of things and, ah, the fact that this is fifth language, um... it's, you know, it's, it's very difficult to do that.  And certainly when you do find yourself, um - or you're faced with, um - you know, forced to do that you kind of like... it takes away from your, ah, your performance, you know.  Because you do spend too much time with the dialogue and sort of becoming too lyrical. 

Question: What are your criteria for choosing a role?

Djimon Hounsou: Well, you do have to work and it also has to do with where you're at in your career.  Eventually my attraction to the roles I choose, I choose roles depending upon the integrity of the characters that I'm playing.  And that's important.  I came to American and had a very clear understanding of how African-American people were depicted in films.  I do my best to portray characters that have great integrity.

Question: Michael, can you talk about the experience of directing the two leads Scarlett and Ewan and the 16 hour days and hours of training on top of that.

Michael Bay: That's always my m.o. is to keep that energy high, especially when you're doing action stuff because the intensity, you have to keep it there and I often, I don't do 16 hour days.  I do 12 hour days because I think it's counter-productive to keep long days.  It's harder on Scarlett because she has to get there early and into make-up and what not.  Directors don't have to do that.  But, working with them, they're consummate actors.  I was really impressed working with Scarlett.  She is 20.  She had her 20th birthday on this film and she's got a sophistication about her.  There are just some charming moments when...it's part of her process.  Every actor has a difference process.  Scarlet's process is like [in little girl voice]  'no.  I can't say that.  I can't say that. I can't.  I can't'. I'm like 'trust me.  Just try it'.  So she does this line and I say 'let's do another line'. She goes 'no, no, no.  I like that one.  Let's keep doing it'. Scarlett is one of a kind, I've gotta tell you.  The famous director gets called to the actor's trailer right before she does a love scene.  How many times have I had to go and say, 'Come on, just come out, please.  You look beautiful. Just come out'.  I get the call from the A.D. 'she needs to see you'.  I'm like 'oh, my God.  Here we go'.  I'm ready to do Ewan and her love scene.  I'm like 'oh my God, she's not gonna come out'.  I go and knock on the trailer door 'Scarlett'.  'Yes' 'Can I come in?' I go in 'I'm not fuckin' wearin' this bra, this cheap-ass bra, okay.  This cheap-ass black bra.  I'm goin' naked'.  I'm 'Scarlett you can't go naked, okay.  It's PG-13'.  Classic story. She's feisty, I must say.

Question: What is it like working with DreamWorks and contrast with working with Disney.

Michael Bay: First time I got the script I called back and said 'I'm very interested'.  I came in to meet with Walter, Laurie, Steven, Adam Goodman.  We had a really nice meeting.  I left the office and realized, 'that is the smallest studio in town'.  It's kind of interesting because the whole studio was there besides Jeffrey and Geffen. Every studio is a little different.  But, I did enjoy the experience.  You've got to see how studios work.  You've got to see the vibe, how we get along and they've got to understand me and what I'm after and how I work because we all have different processes but I very much enjoyed it.  It was nice.  Steven's a filmmaker.  He understands what directors go through and he's got your back.

Question: All of the actors have been in very serious dramas.  Coming to a big escapist movie like this, do you have to change up your acting game to accommodate that? For, Michael, is it easier for you to deal with all the technical production challenges when you know you've got actors that you don't really have to push.

Michael Clarke Duncan: I didn't have to change up too much.  I just hated the crying because once I start crying, I really can't stop.  But they shoot these things into my calves and he kept me in those things for like... he says he only does 12 hour days, right.  I was in those things for 18 hours and they shrunk my calves down so badly.  My calves were sweating and flies were hanging around my calves.  It was horrible but I enjoyed it.

Djimon Hounsou: You do approach every movie differently. Other than the fact that we started [SOUNDS LIKE: rough].  It was pretty rough. I remember the second day, I think Scarlett came to the set and we started shooting and Scarlett said 'what is it about this film?  All I'm doing is running, running, running'.  It just occurred to me, 'did any of us read the script?' [laughter].  Here's Michael going at high speed.  It was difficult to think that we were starting such a big film.  Everything was just huge and the pace he was going...

Michael Bay: I actually plan productions that way where you start off where you do little about character and you try to get... it's a machine you have to ramp up.  If you start on a slow scene, that's gonna be the pace for the entire film.  You start really fast and hard and you do a lot of set ups and show this is how fast we're going to shoot this entire movie.  This is the energy level.  I often like to start at a very high energy clip when I do these movies.  But, I love working with actors.  That's the joy of directing when we can come up with something.  That's your goal right there.  You see it in their eyes.  Just because I do these big movies... I love these intimate moments. I care about them very much.

Question: You didn't do a stamina workout to get through all this?

Michael Bay: I had the Aussie accent.  'What are we doing today?' 'Today you are doing running, running, running, look, look, ponder, run, run, run'.

Question: What are your thoughts on remaking The Birds?

Michael Bay: I don't even want to talk about The Birds because that's so far down the line. I have misgivings about even trying to even do that. Know what I'm saying? Or state that. So I don't really want to talk about it. There's a lot more other things I'm doing before that. Just because I say something doesn't mean it's going to happen. You can believe everything you say.

Question: What's next then?

Michael Bay: They're starting the Texas prequel. It's called The Origins and we're doing The Hitcher. And we've got two other things in developments to possibly start.

Question: What is the slippery slope of remakes and what wouldn't you touch?

Michael Bay: Don't ever touch The Shining.

Question: They did.

Michael Bay: Oh, that's right. I don't really watch TV. Slippery slope? Texas was just literally to start a company. I wanted to start a company to help younger directors. That's what I wanted to do. I found two of my very close friends and it was a title that was in our culture, people thought it was true, that was our hook. And there's a whole generation of kids that haven't seen the original. And it's not to try to make it better. It's just try to show it for a new generation.

Question: So just finding films that aren't so well known?

Michael Bay: Yeah. I mean, Amityville Horror had hints of truth, whatnot. There's a whole story of the murder was very weird if you talk to the real coroner. There's a lot of strange stuff. No one had a defensive wound, everyone was in sleeping positions, it was a very loud rifle. The toxicologist showed there were no drugs used. So it was just a bizarre thing. The land was from a guy from the witch era that tortured Indians in a sanitarium there.

Question: Why The Shining?

Michael Bay: I love Kubrick and the scariest shot I think I've ever seen in a movie is those two twins down the hallway.

Question: In a wrestling match, would you bet on Michael or Djimon?

Michael Bay: I think the loudmouth is over here [Duncan]. He talks a lot of smack. This guy [Hounsou], the lethal quiet ones are usually the dangerous ones. Can I tell you, the first time I met Michael Clarke Duncan, we found him in a gym somewhere. I told my casting woman, Bonnie, I said, 'We need a big, big, black guy named Bear.' And she goes, 'But I have this beautiful guy, he's 115 pounds white guy.' And I'm like, 'No, no, Bonnie, you don't get it.' We found Michael at the gym. He came in. You were huge, by the way, and I was there with Jerry Bruckheimer. And he started to cry in the audition. Literally crying, 'I just want to be in a movie.'

Michael Clarke Duncan: I don't quite remember saying that.: I remember crying. I don't remember saying I wanted to be in the movie. We were talking about my mother and my mother is very dear to me. That's what made me cry. Not wanting to be in your movie.

Question: What's coming up for you, Michael Clarke Duncan?

Michael Clarke Duncan: Really, since Michael owes me something, we're going to come up with something really good for you guys. We'll see if I don't mind doing it. He's pretty cool about it. He pays pretty well. Even though the check was late. You know what? I'm really open to a lot of things. I mean, I would love to do television. I just saw one of the best TV shows the other night is 24. I just think that ending was just fantastic. I was sitting up there, right after I called my manager and said, 'You've got to get me on 24 or Desperate Housewives.' I love those shows. Those shows are like the top shows that I never ever miss. I mean, to miss Desperate Housewives, I'd miss premieres before I'd miss Desperate Housewives or 24, so maybe I'll do some television.

Question: Can the three of you talk about the most disappointing and fulfilling moments in your careers?

Michael Clarke Duncan: I think my most disappointing moment is- - this has nothing to do with acting, but wanting to be an actor and being homeless in Chicago on Christmas Eve, and having all my clothes in a '67 Buick which was a beautiful car. And sitting up on the lakefront and thinking to myself that it can't get any worse than this. And one day I would see that Hollywood sign and one day I'm going to be able to work in an industry and have people look up to me. I think the best thing about my career was doing The Green Mile. That was the movie that kind of put me over the top and gave me a lot of more opportunities.

Michael Bay: So, are we talking about our worst and our best? I don't know about my worst. Just reflecting on life as a director. Director is a weird job. It's one of those all consuming jobs. What I'm dealing with is trying to balance real life and too much work. Because directing sucks the life out of you because your whole world becomes consumed by it. And there's so much pressure in this town to succeed. You've got to look at life and it's like does it really matter? Okay, the box office wasn't that good. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? No. And when I was younger, I think that's what mattered. There was something great that happened. A kid came up to me, believe it or not, I was at Starbucks, and he pulled me aside and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' And I'm like, 'Why?' He says, 'I was going to commit suicide and I saw your movie.' It was The Rock he said. He saw The Rock 'and I didn't do it.' That is the craziest story I've ever heard. No seriously, he had tears in his eyes. It's bizarre that a movie can do something like that. So anyway, I don't know what I'm saying right now. I need to get back to the edit room. That's what I'm thinking about right now.

Question: What was it about The Rock?

Michael Bay: It was something he said. He said it was the music and the Nic/Sean relationship and he said he was going to shoot himself that night. It was bizarre.

Djimon Hounsou: The only thing I found it difficult in the business, because I'm an odd character within the business to begin with, and also I think the outlook on African-Americans, certainly on Africans, sounded to me like National Geographic Channel or Discovery Channel. So they just think that all Africans just are all in their leather cloth running around chasing gazelles in the bush. So that was sort of my experience of Hollywood. Certainly the way Hollywood felt about Africans. And certainly right after Amistad, all the news I had with studios, they all just thought that I never spoke English and when I was coming to have a meeting, they didn't quite understand why I was coming to have a meeting with them. Because they thought I was coming to have a meeting with a translator. So it went on for a long time and certainly after Amistad, some of the roles that I was offered, they were all just that sort of- - that depicted Africans in that fashion. So that's why I'm much more compelled to play roles and certainly I was extremely moved and blessed that Michael Bay thought of me for this role and funny enough, we started shooting and Ewan said, 'Hey, so you guys have known each other for some time. So that's cool. You kind of support each other.' Michael turned around and said, 'Fuck support. Supporting what? No, he was available. Fuck it.' But I do have to say one thing about Michael, not necessarily because he's here, but I've known him for 12 years and we've all- - the people that I came up with in the business, we've all thought about Michael. He's a headache at times because of his nature, just like a big kid in a toy store who just has so much to play with and just knows exactly what he wants to make, so no one steps in front of him. But whatever he wants to do, he wants to do. But I think because he was known to do a certain genre of films, because most of us are mistaken with his ability to tell a story. I think it's a lot harder to tell a story in a genre picture like this, The Island. The way he was able to keep the actors somewhat real and with the action and the pace of the story

Question: Djimon, anything more about your character that you can reveal?

Djimon Hounsou: Oh, listen, it's going to be a beautiful ride no matter how you look at it. Just be patient, please.