Interview: for Michael Peña It’s all About Keeping it Real – Currently starring in BATTLE: Los Angeles and The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer is a courtroom action drama, and Michael Peña brings much of that drama in one scene alone, as the wrongfully incarcerated prison inmate Jesus Martinez, raising the stakes for Michael Haller (Matthew McConaughey), a slick, charismatic Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln Continental sedan.
Peña’s career has been a combination of starring and smaller roles, in both major studio and indie films like the Academy Award winning Crash or The World Trade Center. His range of roles is evident in his two most recent films; a prisoner in San Quentin in The Lincoln Lawyer, and a caring father caught in the wrong side of the battle with his son in BATTLE: Los Angeles, released last week. Peña’s choice of roles are by design, as we learned when we interviewed him recently:
Latin Heat:
You’ve done some memorable roles, such as your character in Crash and the more recent comedies like Observe and Report. What is your process for choosing your roles?
Michael Peña:
A part is a part, there is no difference. I do small or bigger ones depending if I like the script.