Behind the Scenes

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The Harbour takes a beating.

And did you nail it in one take? "Yes! We did it in one take," Mike proudly boasts. In addition, they had him jumping off of 100 feet high ships into the water. "From 25 feet to 6 feet, just going into the water over and over and being set on fire. And that was just the first two days. Then they got us out on the tar mat and that was the scariest." When the planes came in to strafe the runways, the stunt teams were there as soliders running for their lives. Not so far from the truth as it turned out for Mike. "We had planes chasing us down the runway, you know in a strafing pattern and they're six feet off the ground.

"Sometimes they would come in four to six feet but their propeller blades drop down even lower and I was sure we were gonna get sliced to ribbons." He recalls, "I talked with the pilots afterwards and they're like, 'You guys got some cohunes!' That was really scary! And these planes were like they were held together with glue, they were just like paper thin." Part of authenticating the attack was the usage of actually WWII planes. "We had four Japanese Zeros and these were real 1941 planes and they had them flying overhead at the ceremony and it was a very emotional moment because no Japanese plane has flown over Pearl Harbor or Ford Island where the attach took place since then, so it was really an experience." They not only used real planes, but some of the Battleships were authentic as well. "We were back behind these battleships that they were really blowing up and there were pieces of metal and shrapnel flying in the air. No ones ever been allowed back there. There were a lot of the CGI animation (computer generated) with the planes and all but those ships in the foreground were real."

The Matrix Reloaded

Now we jump into the future. The future where what we think is real is not and is. Where computers run man and create the world that exists around him and in him. For Mike, working on The Matrix Reloaded has got to rawk! And keeping this boys enthusiasm down while talking about it was, well, you'll see. "Yeah, it's awesome!! I can't talk too much about it but it's gonna blow you away!" Since the production of the film is being closely watched we had to be careful but Mike was able to tell us who he doubled for. "I'm doubling for Agent Smith [Hugo Weaving] There's actually several of us doing Agent Smith and I had to shave my head, the front part of my head because they want to get us to perfectly match. So I've been walking around with this half Mohawk on the front of my head." You can imagine that the stunts are going to rival that of the first film. "I can't tell you any specific gags," he explained, "but I can say that Woo-ping Yuen (fight choreographer) from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is working on it. He's brought his entire stunt team out from Japan and there's going to be some incredible stuff. If you thought The Matrix was great there's going to be stuff in here that you haven't even imagined!" Fans can look forward to it being released next year, in December of 2002. "They want to hold on to it until [Part III] is half way done. We just finished tonight and tomorrow night is the wrap party then they go off to shoot the rest in Australia but I think I'm going to stay here."

Not only does Mike deserve a rest but his Angel fans want to see him again as well. Season Two was pretty stunt heavy and Mike was there for most of it. "All but the last two weeks, then I had to come up here for The Matrix but my buddy Mike took over and he's just a great stunt man. I knew him from back in Florida, he stayed at my apartment while I came up here to work on The Matrix." Mike got a lot of ribbing, because he's the only stuntman in Hollywood that can find a stunt double who looks more like him than the lead actor. So filling in for Mike was no problem at all. One stunt in the opening episode, Judgment, called for jousting, not something you pick up on the streets, but Mike can do just about anything. "I did, but you know, David [Boreanaz] tried doing it and he's such a good rider that we let him do some." He also adds that the Knight's stunt work was done by the same talented man Marc Cass from the film First Knight. "He did the jousting in that, he's just an exceptional horse rider but he's a great all around stunt man. He can do it all. I don't consider myself a martial artist, I'm pretty much an all-around-I-can-do-anything kind of guy, but after working on The Matrix, I wanna come back and say laughing through the comment, 'Yeah, let me do some of this! This is awesome!'"

"Live on the set.
We're bombing here!"

When asked if he was looking forward to the new season of Angel, Mike said, "Yes, it's such a great show to work for. I'm still trying to get them to do some motorcycle stunts but hopefully this season." The fans will look forward to that. "I hope so too," Mikes adds. But still, is there any time off for this incredibly busy man? "Yes, actually. I'm going home after this weekend and moving into my new apartment and then I'm going to Greece for eight days." A well deserved rest indeed. And can you just imagine Mike doing the nothing thing? He closes out with a slight laugh ashe tells us what a typical day in Greece is going to be like when he's sitting on the beach, "I'm going to breath in and breath out and look at a wall and say, 'I don't have to crash into that wall and I don't have to fall off that wall.' "

CityofAngel.com would like to graciously thank Amber Benson and Mike Massa for finding time in their summer working hiatus to talk with us!

Special Thanks goes out to Jen Malzone at Benson Entertainment, Inc. for ALL the tremendous help she gave us for this feature.

All ‘Chance’ Photos used solely with the expressed consent of Benson Entertainment, Inc To learn more about Chance, visit Amber’s Web site for the Film at: http://zengurljen.net/chance