‘Ambulance’ Actor A. Martinez on ‘Natural Tension’ With Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Exclusive)

Ambulance actor A. Martinez portrays Papi, a vicious drug kingpin, in the fast-paced Michael Bay action-thiller. Recently, Martinez sat down for a virtual interview with PopCulture.com and shared what it was like to work on the film, specifically addressing his working relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and the “natural tension” that exists between their three characters. 

In Ambulance, Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen II as brothers Danny and Will Sharp, respectively, wind up hijacking an ambulance and taking one of its EMTs (Eiza González) hostage, after a bank robbery-gone-wrong ends with one of them shooting a cop. Martinez’s Papi is a crime lord who worked with their father years ago and has maintained a business relationship with Danny since he took over for his father. “When I really engaged with those guys, they’re all jacked up and they’re running as fast as they can and they want to keep running as fast as they can,” Martinez explained. “My whole basic goal is to slow them down. So, there’s a natural tension immediately, plus there’s the fact that these guys have been playing a million scenes in a row with each other before they ever played a scene with me.”

He went on to say, “I’m a little bit the new kid in the class and I had a real strong sense of needing to be ready to step up and meet them where they were. I know that planning ahead, basically having a depth of preparation is the only way you can do that with confidence and so, that worked out. In fact, well, I won’t go anymore because I don’t want to give anything away. But yeah, it was a golden experience as an actor and I’ll never forget it actually.”

As for what it was like to work with Bay, an iconic and innovative director, Martinez offered, “People were saying, ‘Hey, are you ready for this? You better strap on your big boy pants because he’s going to move fast. You got to get going.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I think I’m ready to do that.’ And I just loved it so much. It was like the level of fun in it the level of discovery.”

He continued, “I said to my manager, I said “he’s like he’s a kid with a toy. He’s got that camera on his shoulder. He’s just like making…” And my managers, well he’s in his fifties, so you can’t call him a kid and I’m saying, “well, I’m just saying how he acts man. He just seems like a kid with a toy.” It’s it was a blast.”

Ambulance is now available to own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD. Among the special features included are behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of the film, as well as deleted scenes. The film is also available digitally from Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and more.