Transformers 2, Cast and Crew!

We're in Beverly Hills chatting giant robots with hot guys (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Ramon Rodriguez) a gorgeous gal (Megan Fox) and a mega-director (Michael Bay). Bay rolled in direct from the airport and his promo tour in Russia for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen just as we sat down to chat. Picture gorgeous, dark-haired Megan in a plumb-colored, form-hugging Michael Kors jersey dress, Tyrese ultra-dapper in grey suit with pink tie and pocket hankie, Josh in grey dress shirt and tie and Bay and Ramon both in stylish black shirts.

Shia LaBeouf was a no-show and we don't know why. Maybe the gossip mill has gotten to him, maybe he's shooting a film or maybe he just didn't want more Q's about his poor mangled hand! At any rate, we got plenty of fun info on a wild array of subjects like explosions on set, partying in New Mexico, Megan's guy-packed costume fittings, President Obama, Twitter and Ramon's dislocated shoulder. These guys are funny too. Read on.....

TeenHollywood: Since Shia's not here, let's talk about him. Michael, have you heard from Shia and how is his hand doing?

Michael: It's very good. He had three surgeries. They sculpted a piece of bone from his hip and made fingers because they were very crushed. He had really good doctors.

TeenHollywood: How did you first hear about the accident and Shia's injury? We've heard so many stories....

Michael: I actually read it on CNN online and I'm like 'this can't be true'. I called my line producer Ian Bryce and he goes, 'It's true'. I'm like 'oh my God'. He goes, 'let's shut down'. I'm like, 'we can't shut down'. Because, when you've got a train going, it's so expensive to shut a picture like this down. We had an action scene in the library that day. We were shooting on Monday and I said 'let's just go for it. Let's not stop. Let's use Vlad, his stuntman, and try to cover as much stuff as we can'. Then, on Tuesday, we shut down.

TeenHollywood: To re-group or what?

Michael: We had to mix and match everything pulling from different scenes we could shoot without him. We didn't know how long he was gonna be down. Immediately I had them find the best people in the world to make a special cast that's never been made with the Kevlar fingers, very thin so you can photograph it because the problem was, if you were to jam his fingers, he could lose his fingers forever. So we had some experts of the world come up with this design. We were very lucky because we had shot a lot of the beginning of the movie.

Megan: I think we were very lucky for Shia's commitment to this movie. He showed up with his injury and acted as though he didn't have an injury and still went balls to the wall and completely committed and did things that were not safe for him to do but he wanted this movie to be as real as possible so I think that helped everyone else a lot.

Michael: Yeah. We'd have arguments. He would take his cast off and I said, 'No. Put your cast on'. 'No, I'm fine'. 'Put your cast back on!' We were trying to protect the hand.

Josh: Remember when he cut his eye and he wanted to come back to work that day?

Michael: Oh, yeah.

TeenHollywood: Let's concentrate on Megan. What has changed for you since you made the first Transformers?

Megan: I think, the movie, its success and how well it was received, has opened a lot of doors for me career-wise and I've been able to be a part of some films that I don't really feel like I deserved to have been a part of and that's due greatly, if not solely to the success of Transformers. I just did Jonah Hex with Josh Brolin and Michael Fassbender and John Malkovich and actors don't generally get those opportunities.

TeenHollywood: Did anything change in your daily life?

Megan: Sure. I mean being photographed at Whole Foods or coming out of Rite Aid with your shampoo bottles and stuff, that's new for me but that's not that crazy. You adjust to that, you acclimate to that pretty quickly.

TeenHollywood: Michael, you destroyed The Smithsonian Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the Pyramids in Egypt. Did you ever think 'I can't do this'.

Michael: It's called summer fun. It's a robot movie [laughter].

TeenHollywood: Megan, we love your dress today but, in the film, you are wearing a lot of costumes with some skin showing [laughter]. Did you ever think 'I can't wear this'?

Megan: Yeah, I have those moments on a daily basis. But, in the process of picking those outfits, I don't have much of a say. I remember Mike was auditioning Ramon and some of the other characters and there was a room full of men upstairs in his office.

Michael: Two young guys.

Megan: No, it was Shia, Ramon, two other actors and you and I had to come up and down and knock on the door and try on all my wardrobe and I had on like eighteen different outfits. There was like white jean shorts and pink belly shirt and white motorcycle boots and we went through a whole thing and Mike was selecting them in the process of auditioning...

Michael: It's called multi-tasking.

Megan: Right, but I had no say. Clearly, he has an eye for what should and should not be in the movie. So, I just trust him.

TeenHollywood: Michael, guys will respond to Megan but what is especially in the film for the ladies?

Michael: I think what was interesting about the first one, it's got relationships with the parents and the kids and Kevin [Dunn who plays Shia's dad] is actually playing my father. That's very much how my parents were when I was growing up. What was making the movie accessible to everybody was the humor in it and I think that's how you make it accessible to everyone. It's not just a fanboy movie. Most women hone in on the humor and there are a lot of young women who say 'I just want to see robots kicking a**'. I've heard that before. And I think the relationship between Shia and Megan.

Josh: Tyrese offered to introduce himself in the second movie by doing a shirtless car wash scene on Optimus but Michael didn't go for it. [laughter].

Michael: I didn't, yeah.

Tyrese: Thanks, Josh.

TeenHollywood: There were actual members of our military as extras in the film. Megan, what were your favorite or most memorable experiences working with the soldiers?

Megan: I think, just in general, I was really pleasantly, not surprised with them, but they're all extremely chivalrous and very respectful. Clearly because they're disciplined and they're so much better behaved than the rest of the cast is, [laughter] including myself though. They listen and take direction really well and we're all just f**king off.

Michael: You should all be like them.

Megan: Yeah, but it added authenticity to the movie. Michael, you consult with the military on everything to make it authentic and to make it real and it's also that I enjoy being able to walk on the set and there's a hundred real soldiers as opposed to walking on and it's a hundred actors from Orange County or L.A. in fatigues. It was just overall, a really pleasant experience for me. I have an immense amount of respect for the soldiers and for our troops.

Michael: When they brief you it's like a flight attendant would say, [he gestures like one] 'Okay, these are the doors, exits, on your right, blah, blah blah', they go 'okay, if we have a water landing and I'm dead, someone needs to pull this cord right here'. [laughter]. It's one of those briefings, so it's just down to the point. 'And if you pull and inflate your vest, you will die'. [laughter]

TeenHollywood: What were your favorite memories of making this film, Tyrese and Josh?

Tyrese: I just overall had fun with the experience and we all vibed and was laughin' and havin' big parties and good energy on the set. There's so much pressure on the set because Michael runs a real tight ship, keeps everybody on the edge and everybody full throttle. It's like 'man, if I don't do a party, I'm gonna go crazy right now'. I tried to keep everybody, all the crew, the cast, everybody havin' fun while we was workin'.

Josh: He took the night shift. I was trying to be as accurate as I could and my favorite scene in the movie was throwing the National Security Advisor off the plane. So that was the most fun I had. It was just a fun scene to do and there was a nice little stunt involved and, yeah, that was probably my most memorable. That or the gigantic bomb that went off.

Megan: One thousand gallons.

Tyrese: Yeah, one thousand. We made history. The biggest practical explosion in the history of filmmaking that included the actors.

TeenHollywood: Michael, you have added some comic character transformers in the film like the twins who are always arguing. Was that for the younger teens or kids?

Michael: I wanted two younger transformers but with those two guys we used the guy who played Sponge Bob [for the voice] and another actor. I just wanted something where it would appeal to younger kids. I think they really gravitate to those two characters. It's like the little engine that could with the Devastator scene.

TeenHollywood: What is it like for you, Megan, to see yourself on the big IMAX screen? And, how do you react to always been called the sex symbol of the movie?

Megan: I haven't seen the movie in IMAX. I just saw it for the first time a few days ago when we were in London and I usually don't watch myself. I don't watch playback. I don't look at still photos. I have a phobia of it. I forced myself to sit down. I basically shot an entire glass of champagne so that I could get through the screening of it and I was really, really pleasantly surprised. It so far surpassed my expectations. I think the character is sexy but women in movies in general, are sexy, especially in Michael's movies. He knows how to make movies that get people in the theater. That's part of it. If that's part of the formula....

Michael: But, if you look at the movie, we got that first shot [with Megan sprawled over a motorcycle] out of the way, just to get it out for the young boys and move on. The rest of the movie with her, it's not about sexy.

TeenHollywood: For all the actors, there is a lot of running in this movie. Were they any injuries and did anybody just finally sit down and say to Michael, 'I'm not running another inch'? [Michael laughs].

Tyrese: The Navy Seals said that.

Tyrese: I sprained my left pinkie toe.

Josh: Did you?

Ramon: I popped this shoulder, which was a lot of fun on the Devastator scene.

Michael: Did you?

Ramon: Oh yeah, bro'.

Michael: You never told me that.

Ramon: I didn't want to get you worried.

Michael: You want to sue me?

Ramon: No. When we were shooting the Devastator scene, we were sucking up sand and I had to hold onto this pole and Michael Bay thought it would be a really great idea to bring out two fans that blow a hundred miles per hour each and he put them right in front of my face so I had sand, soot and dirt blowing in my face and I had two guys behind me with wires attached to my ankles pulling me. Not enough yet. We need cars flipping over my head! He brought two cars and he literally had them attached to a hydraulic crane flip inches above my head. So, the guys were yanking the cables on my ankles and, yes, on one of the takes my shoulder popped out and we continued rolling.

Michael: That was the shot we used.

Ramon: Thank you, Michael.[laughter]

TeenHollywood: Ramon, how much improvisation did you get to do?

Ramon: Luckily, Michael's really into improv if you have a cool idea. I started realizing, throughout the process, that if he laughed at something it meant it was pretty good. As an audience, he's really good at that. As a director, he's kind of like an audience member. But, we improved a lot of scenes. He let me throw some Spanish in there. Let me expand on it, like [his character's full name] Leonardo Ponce de Leon Spitz, I got to create this fun name. It was cool.

TeenHollywood: The first Transformers introduced you to the world of playing against creatures that are put in later by computer. Was it easier this time or is it still a hard acting job?

Megan: No, it was definitely easier because we had seen them at this point. We've seen Optimus and we've heard his voice and we know how he moves. It's the same with all of the robots. Once you're able to visualize something's present, it's a lot easier to fake interact with it. I think those scenes are some of the easiest to shoot. I enjoy them because we've gotten good at being able to synchronize and pick an eyeline and you basically scream your dialogue at it and you avoid the area where you know it is. I enjoy those scenes. We end up usually doing a ton of takes because with, ILM, you know, it needs to be specific. The light needs to be right and they need to be able to add it in and make it look the way that they do. It wasn't that difficult this time around.

TeenHollywood: There is a lot of great music in the film. Do you guys ever listen to any music on set to get into character or to help you prepare and get rhythms going?

Michael: Sometimes we do play music on the set for some scenes. Some actors like it a lot. You mean in their trailer? I don't know what they do in their trailer.

Josh: Mostly Abba. [Laughter]

Michael: Journey.

Tyrese: Marvin Gaye.

TeenHollywood: Michael, didn't you use real planes doing real military training missions in the movie?

Michael: We had incredible access from the military which is very rare. All those planes, that's us shooting it. They flew a hundred feet over our set. There were six F-16's out doing a mission and we timed their mission for when we wanted them to come over our set four times and we're setting off live explosions down below and we timed it with them.

TeenHollywood: One of the screenwriters said that one of the themes in the movie is that if you separate humanity from technology you run into problems. Do any of you guys feel more trigger-shy around technology after making this film? I mean, with Twitter and the internet and everything.

Michael: I don't know what Twitter is.

Megan: Neither do I, by the way.

Tyrese: I love Twitter. I took the fans on a world tour to all six, seven countries we went to, took pictures of all of the historical places in Rome and Amsterdam. I took all of them on tour with me. I told them, 'pull out your passports, I'm taking you on tour with Twitter'. I love it.

TeenHollywood: What do you like about it? Is it the immediacy with the fans?

Tyrese: It's the gratification of posting a picture of us just hanging out somewhere doing something or all of these different moments throughout these countries and the fans are like 'whoa'. They get to see these images of things that they wouldn't get to see unless you sent it on your Twitter so I love it.

TeenHollywood: Michael, can you talk about the decision to use President Obama's name rather than have a fictional President, especially in the light of his national security advisor being rather stupid in the film.

Michael: Remember, it is summer fun by the way. The Obama thing came about because I was walking in a Vegas airport and he was walking by himself carrying his bags after I had just seen him at the beginning of his campaign and we were walking side by side and I said 'Hey, I saw you and I liked what you had to say the other night. I really liked hearing your stuff'. I introduced myself and he said 'what do you do?' 'I'm a director' and he said 'on what movies?' and I said all these movies and he said 'Oh, you're a big-a** director. [laughter] I've seen a bunch of your movies'. So that's why I decided to put him in.

Josh: Did he really say 'big a**'?

Michael: Yeah, he really did. That's cool. I love that man.

Tyrese: Josh is very involved in politics by the way. All the time we were filming, he did not miss one speech, the polls, anything. We had so many conversations in the car on the way to the set about the whole campaign. I learned a lot, Josh. You're the greatest.

Josh: That's what I'm here for. I was just worried about after throwing him [the advisor] off the plane, I might get audited.

TeenHollywood: After a stressful day on the set, what did you do to relax and also what did you do to stay in shape for the film?

Megan: I know in New Mexico, what all of us did to relax after a hard day at work was to go drink at Chili's. We drank a lot. Then, to stay in shape, I didn't find the time or I didn't have the motivation to work out after we would shoot a 16-hour day, I was too tired to work out. So, I didn't really maintain much [yeah, like it matters. She looks awesome!] So, how do you do it Josh Duhamel, you specimen of a human being? [laughter]

Josh: Honestly, you're out there literally sweating all day long and you don't have a lot of energy.

Michael: Running in the sand too.

Josh: Tyrese and I worked out a little bit.

Megan: Together?

Josh: Yeah, more of a personal competition. He would spot me and I would spot him. What's the big deal?

Tyrese: That don't sound too good.

Josh: Honestly, before I started the first one, I remember Michael told me 'come ready. Be in shape. I demand a lot of my male actors, especially in these movies', so I did. I just tired to be as strong and as ready to go as I could. We worked out twice a day though. We worked out before we went to the set and after the set we would come and get our five miles in. Three, two, whatever.

TeenHollywood: Megan, who do you play in Jonah Hex?

Megan: I think they're calling her Leila now. She's a love interest for the character named Jonah.

TeenHollywood: Have you seen Jennifer's Body yet?

Megan: I have seen it. I'm actually very happy with it. Diablo [Cody, the screenwriter] is so wicked and funny and hard to really make a film that was up to her script but I think Karyn (Kusama, the director) did a pretty good job and I think it's one of the most interesting movies coming out this year for sure. It's offbeat comedy [and horror]. It's inappropriate comedy which I find to be the funniest.