MICHAEL PENA PLAYS COPS AND ROBBERS

Michael Pena stars as a rookie FBI agent who gets entangled in a conspiracy mission to frame Mark Wahlberg’s Marine sniper in Shooter.

Michael visited the real FBI headquarters in Philadelphia and felt a similar exuberance to learning the job as his character.

“I went to the FBI, like the real FBI and it’s huge. It’s a really big place. I went to Philadelphia and they had the sets just as big here. You get to play an FBI agent it’s really cool. As a kid playing cops and robbers you see all the FBI files on all these history channels and what not. Just going there and seeing all the most wanted pictures you’re like, ‘did you get that guy, did you get this guy?’ I think that’s how my character is for the most part. He’s really excited to be on the job. He can’t believe he’s an FBI agent.”

Michael lived out his cops and robbers child’s play in the film shooting at the bad guys.

“For me this is the first movie where I had to run and there’s helicopters and all these different explosions and what not. I’m shooting and it’s really hard not to get into it because even though it’s fake you’re shooting at whatever mercenaries that are set up and you’re just shooting away and then the helicopter’s coming down and there’s massive amounts of explosions. I got to run up and down hills and hide for cover. Bang, I’m shooting. It’s pretty cool actually.”

Director Antoine Fuqua received full cooperation from the Violent Crime Squad at the FBI and former secret service agents who came to the set every morning at 6:00AM for a full briefing on what was right or wrong about the day’s scene. Shooter is currently playing in theaters.