Check out what Eric Bana, Taylor Kitsch, Mark Wahlberg and Emile Hirsch had to say about working on the “Lone Survivor” out Jan. 10.
When asked how the families of the fallen soldiers embraced them/did they become “adopted sons” at the end of the day:
Hirsch: Well, you know, Danny’s mother Cindy…she actually jokes with me and calls me her adopted son now and Dan Sr., Danny’s father, says the same thing, and getting to know them and getting to visit with them and hear their thoughts and prayers about their son has been a really special experience and I’m going to Denver on the 12th and we’re gonna do a big family screening and I’m really looking forward to that.
Kitsch: A week before we hit camera I got to meet Dan Murphy and Mike’s father. It’s been an amazing relationship to today. We e-mail back and forth, he’s been an amazing supporter from that first dinner, from the first time I met him. Finally met the rest of Murph’s family at the premiere and then, like Emile’s doing, I’m going to Long Island on Monday to do it. The whole family, a lot of Murph’s long time friends, the fire departments, police, it’s gonna be a special evening.
When asked how they physically got prepared for some of the more demanding scenes in the film:
Wahlberg: The falls and all that stuff…originally this was gonna be a big budget movie, so you would have had cables and green screens, but we did the movie for price and I think that’s why it feels so intimate and real and authentic. You know. The first stuntman to go down the cliff when he landed on the bottom of the cliff he went right on to a stretcher and right to the hospital. But everybody was there. The Seals were there so you had this immense pressure to stand up and be a man cause everybody was overly pumped. But we just did what was required, you know, bumps and bruises. But we wanted to make it feel real and it seems like it’s all been done before. But something so simplistic as that having such an impact because it’s pretty damn real.
When asked about the difference in emotions and approach when taking on a character who is real compared to a character who is fictional:
Hirsch: For me, playing Danny in some of those when he’s on his last legs…the fact that I had talked to his mother, his father, his brother, his sister, and his friends and I’d heard so many great stories about him and I’d seen video of him…I just knew how much people really loved him and that, you know, when someone touches you in that way, there’s just so much reality to that and you have so much empathy for a person. I feel like that really influences you in such a strong way to where…you’re not trying to find an emotion or something like that because that’s already there…your heart has already been filled up. You’re just doing the scene and it’s so real because it is so real and you’ve learned about what this person is like and they’ve touched you in that way.
Kitsch: I’d echo the same thing…knowing that the families…it’s actually on a lot of those days you’re trying to suppress it because you get caught up pretty easily. Being opposite great actors, too, always helps.
Hirsch: One thing I’d also add is having the Seals on set as well…and they’ve all had friends who have fallen…we would do scenes sometimes…Mark would do something, Taylor would do something, I would do something, and the Seals themselves…you could just see it on their faces…how real it was for them and how emotionally affected they were and it was such a reminder, ‘Oh, this isn’t some action sequence for them. This is some of the hardest moments, emotionally, of these guys lives that you’re living out right now.’
When asked if any of them could go through real Seal training:
Bana: Which suckers gonna go first?
Wahlberg: I’m 42 years old so…
Even before!
Wahlberg: As a man who doesn’t wanna sit on the bench, I wanna be in the game, I always want the ball so…you would think. But it’s not a question of physical ability, it comes down to that mental toughness that I think sets those guys apart from those guys that can’t get through the training and don’t graduate so I don’t know.
Bana: Marcus tells great stories of when he went through it and how you look around and identify guys who would completely get through just based on how they looked…just like cage fighters or bodybuilders. And it was the guy in the corner who you thought, ‘What the hell is he even doing here? Has he come through the wrong door?’ Those guys would get through it and those guys who looked like they could take on the world were the ones crying after one or two days. As Mark was saying, it really is so much of a mental thing.
When asked why exactly they wanted to do this movie? What was the story they felt they were telling?
Hirsch: Well, you know, for me…this is a film that struck a chord with me on a personal level. These are guys who are willing to put themselves on the front line and fight for their country and it, to me, wasn’t a political film, it wasn’t a film that was going into any kind of details of the wars…should we be here? Should we not be here? It wasn’t about that. This was about soldiers that were willing to give everything they had and the courage it takes to do that. No matter what you’re opinion is on any one conflict there are conflicts that need to be settled. And there are ones that need to be there and that need to happen. This is representative to the best guys we have doing this and I think that guys like that deserve to be honored, to have their story told. We live in a world where there’s 24/7 news cycles and so easy to have these guys be just another news story. I think this is an example of really taking the time to appreciate the sacrifices they make.
Wahlberg: I agree. I agree completely. Well said my friend.
Bana: I was a really big fan of Marcus’ book, I read it some years ago and when I heard that Pete was adapting he called me and asked if I’d consider playing Commander Kristensen and I said yes right away because I’m not only a fan of Marcus’ book, but I just have a bit of a fascination with the special forces community in general. I just think they’re all amazing people and perform an amazing function and as Emile was saying…not every film has this experience…we all make different kinds of movies all the time and I knew going into this that this was one that would feel very different to make and feel very different five to ten years from now compared to other films you make. That doesn’t come along everyday and I think we all kind of felt that there was that sense to this one.
When asked what the most difficult part in portraying these characters and bringing this story to life was:
Kitsch: I don’t know if there’s one specific part…it was…I don’t know. When you meet…the father, you really get so deep within the community…it could be the pressure you put on yourself to make it what it potentially and deserves to be, you know, it’s really hard to pinpoint what it is.
Hirsch: I think that one of the elements that was a challenge for us was in the very beginning when we all first got there to the training with the Seals, we were on the SWAT range in Albuquerque and it was when we first started working with the M4 rifle and the way that the Seals had had it organized was that we were training with live fire rounds with these M4 rifles, so we were all blowing through over 1,000 rounds a day of real bullets. I think that was kind of us jumping into the deep end and working with targets and it was a lot of fun and it was quickly ramping up in intensity because it was a week and a half at this SWAT range and we all learned to trust each other pretty quickly because we had to. And everybody had to be really on point…these are obviously very dangerous weapons. We learned quickly that we could trust each other and I think that meant a lot to us.
When asked if the book has altered their thinking:
Wahlberg: I didn’t read the book before I did the movie only because I read the screenplay first and I’ve been in situations where many times where I’ve adapted a piece of material and you always feel like something’s been left out. I feel like Pete really did a great job writing the screenplay, I was completely immersed in the world and felt it and so I didn’t wanna then go back and start complaining about why wasn’t this in there or that. I did read it after and did wonder why wasn’t this in there or that, but that’s how it goes. I don’t like war, but I love soldiers. They’re not the guys who decide if they’re not going in, they don’t really care. They have a job to do and they go and they do it. Would it be nice to live in a world without it? Absolutely. I don’t want any of these guys to go over there and risk their lives but that’s what they do. That’s why we made this tribute to all of them.
Kitsch: It’s a heavier appreciation on such a different level after becoming close with Marcus, the whole community still being close with a lot of Seals now, you just…you’re more connected. Yeah…it’s definitely changed.
When asked about working with Peter, who is an “actor’s director”:
Hirsch: I think the fact that Pete comes from an actor’s background, and I’ve had a similar type of experience with this working with Sean Penn, they are sometimes a lot more badass with the way that they can communicate with their actors. I think because they were actors there’s not this…’Oh I gotta talk to this actor and be really sensitive with this actor,’ and it really cuts through a lot of the bullshit. There’s times if I was doing something Pete wasn’t happy with, he would let me know very directly and very quickly and he did. But that’s something, for me, I really appreciated that. With him being an actor it really makes that direct communication safe and I’m okay with that. But he also was very…he knew when to leave us alone and when to push us to improvise and to be in the moment all of those things you always hope to be able to do as an actor and you hope a director will understand. He has all that understanding already.
Wahlberg: There’s no room for sensitivity up on the hill…14,000 thousand feet. You can cry like a baby if you want out of relief at the end of the day, but no…everybody loved that. Everybody was there for the same purpose. Do whatever we had to do to get it done. Whether it was Pete barking at you or the Seals…it didn’t matter. Everybody was there for the same reason. There was no egos. We’re all a team, we’re all trying to do something unique.
“Lone Survivor” is now playing.
-Joshua Kaye
