"13 Hours" Actors Talk Bay, Benghazi
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Cast members of the film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" spoke out about the director of the flick - Michael Bay.
"So Michael Bay, he's a maniac right? Brilliant, but "run and gun" literally. Am I correct," joked CBS4's Lisa Petrillo.
"Yes," said Mark "Oz" Geist - one of the six men the movie is based off of. "I love that. He is a run and gun. He's a runaway gun! What's amazing is how he brings out the best in everybody there. He's demanding but he's not going to demand something that he doesn't demand for himself."
The film - based on the book "13 Hours"- tells the true story of six elite ex-military operators who fought back against overwhelming odds in the September 11, 2012, attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Geist along with John "Tig" Tiegen, Kris "Tanto" Paronto are the real men who fought that night.
Related: Michael Bay Film Tells Story Of Benghazi Attack Survivors
"Meeting you in person, seeing you out and about and you're very quiet, you seem like a shy, quiet person." Petrillo said to Michael Bay while interviewing him.
"Not on the set! Not on the set," laughed Bay. " When I'm on a set, it's auto pilot. I have blinders. The vision for the scenes are in my head and I'm in everyone's face....I love shooting. I'm very visual, imaginative and I'm good at leading people."
Petrillo also sat down with actors Pablo Schreiber and David Denman, who play two of the six men who were fighting the terrorists that night.
"The logistics, the guns and the bombs. What did you have to go through to shoot that stuff," Petrillo asked them.
"It was a huge production. Everything Michael Bay does is huge. The first day, I come blasting through the door and I trip on a table and thought I've blown it. I'll be sent me home tomorrow," said Schreiber.
"Then Michael comes through the door yelling 'no,no, I love it. It's real life. It's exactly real life.' It was unbelievable," said Denman.
Max Martini plays Marc and Dominic Fumusa plays John.
"What was it like life for you both to play real life heroes," Petrillo asked.
"One of things that struck me about Mark (Tig) is that he's a regular guy. He's one of us. He's a father, a husband but something in his heart separates us. He has this incredible amount of bravery to walk into the line of fire to protect you and me. I am in awe,"said Martini.
Actors John Krasinski and James "Badge" Dale, both playing former Navy Seals, know the importance of telling this story.
"These men were opposite of selfish. They did what they thought was the right thing to do . There's a great line for John Krasinski in the the film where he says 'You can't put a price with living with yourself,'" said Dale.
"So I didn't know if you lived or died, and I was holding on to the edge of my seat, and then I thought of the family and thought wait, this isn't just a movie. This guy was talking to his wife and little kids on an iPad from Libya," Petrillo said to Krasinski.
He responded, "It was a moment for me that every time I completed a scene that I felt very good about as an actor, and then you realize the fact that the stuff happening around you, is all just pretend and they actually had this many people shooting at them. This stuff was real. We have to realize these are the heroes we have to applaud everyday."
The film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" is now playing in movie theaters.