'Lions for Lambs' actor, Chicago native talks Hollywood

The great thing about most Chicago actors? They don't use a lot of filters when they answer questions.

Take Michael Pena, who grew up at 16th and California. Ask him why he became a movie actor.

"The money," he says. "I was 19 years old. I was working at a bank. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I thought I could make a good living off it (acting). Then, something happened like three years into it. I got my first really good script. The writing was really good.

"Wow! This is what I want to do! Then I fell in love with acting, That's when I started working with people like Kevin Spacey and Don Cheadle and Ryan Gosling."

If you don't know Pena's name, you probably know his face. You've seen him in Paul Haggis' "Crash," Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel" and Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby." His newest movie, Robert Redford's "Lions for Lambs," opened Friday. Pena plays a college student who joins the military and goes to fight the war in Afghanistan.

So, what's it like to work with a Hollywood legend like Redford?

"I think he's closer to someone like Clint Eastwood," Pena said. "Every director wants a different kind of atmosphere, a different kind of energy. Oliver Stone wants a very energetic and fast-paced, moving kind of thing. It shows in his movies. To make an analogy, he would be like a huge opera.

"Robert Redford is more like a cool, improv jazz kinda thing. Everything's relaxed. He just understands people. He's just a great listener as well. It's a joy to work with somebody like that."

So, what keeps the 31-year-old South sider interested in the movies? Money?

"More than anything, I love writers," Pena said. "I read an obscene amount, to be honest with you. Last week, I read four phenomenal scripts. I love stories. I gravitate toward the better directors because they're the master storytellers, the puppet masters. We're working a deal to close Oliver Stone for my next movie. That should be interesting."

Any plans for the Los Angeles resident to move back to Chicago?

"I want to make the move," Pena said. "John Cusack lives here. Chris O'Donnell. I would love to see the Bears all the time. And the Sox."

If Hollywood has changed Pena into a star, his family hasn't gotten the memo. His dad has only seen three of Pena's movies: "World Trade Center," "Crash" and "Lions for Lambs."

"They're a Chicago family, man," Pena said. "My brother's changing a diaper and he'll say, 'Gimme a beer, Mike!' You kinda get checked a little bit whether you like it or not. In Chicago, you wait in line like everyone else. That's the great thing about Chicago."