Jake Gyllenhaal on Fulfilling His 'Dream' of Being in a Michael Bay Movie: 'So Much Room for Fun' 

"I've always had this sort of dream since I was younger to be in a Michael Bay," the actor told PEOPLE

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Jake Gyllenhaal can check one item off his bucket list.

The 41-year-old actor spoke with PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere of Ambulance held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Monday, discussing how he was fulfilling his "dream" of starring in a Michael Bay–directed movie.

"I've always had this sort of dream since I was younger to be in a Michael Bay [movie], and it's just fun to sort of play that out. To be in a city where I grew up, where you're a kid thinking about cars and car chases and stuff like that and to be fulfilling that," says Gyllenhaal of the L.A.-set action flick.

Adds Gyllenhaal, "Being an action star in a movie, it just allows for so much room for fun and joking and absurdity."

Bay, 57, is known for his Transformers movies, plus a decades-long career with movies like The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys and Pearl Harbor.

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Gyllenhaal's costars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González were also in attendance at the screening.

In Ambulance, Abdul-Mateen II, 35, plays veteran Will Sharp who is desperate to cover his wife's upcoming surgery. He turns to his brother Danny (Gyllenhaal) for a loan, only for Danny to offer him the opportunity to score millions in exchange for his help in robbing a bank. They're then on the run after taking control of an ambulance.

Abdul-Mateen II tells PEOPLE of working in a confined space with his costar: "We're playing brothers and that means that we're encouraged to be honest, we're encouraged to laugh and to be uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, we're trying to figure out the best ways to get these scenes done. There's no such thing as personal space — that goes out the window really quickly. Jake's a pro, I'm a pro, so we went out there with an all-hands-on-deck attitude."

Meanwhile, González, 32, says, "The confined space can be very challenging, and emulating the energy, whether you're on set on a fake ambulance and feel that energy or being able to control and put down your energy when we were actually in oncoming traffic on the highway. It was quite challenging."

Adds Gyllenhaal, "It's about having fun. I mean, the movie's really intense, but it's also really fun. It was a bit of a roller coaster to make, and the experience is very much like the way it was to make it."

Ambulance is in theaters Friday.