The British actor talks about the challenge of playing an American soldier – and doing it mostly alone.
Den of Geek: This was not quite what I expected from a movie about the Iraq invasion.
What stood out to you the most when you read the script?
How did you prepare?
I flew to Boston and hung out with him and his guys.
I started to question her a bit.
She was a really big influence on the character.
His name is Christopher Horton.
She actually put me in touch and this was the most beneficial part of the research with John Plummer.
So we tend to incorporate a lot of that in the films beginning.
Did you go above and beyond research-wise than youd normally go for a film?
Yeah, 100%, yeah.
I wouldve loved more time, but we got as much as we needed.
This was a 14-day shoot.
We had John for four days.
Hes a trooper, really, in that sense.
Yeah, that was one of the main elements of why I wanted to do this film.
You dont see many of them.Phone Boothmaybe was one but it was a bigger concept, more commercial.
Then there wasLockewith Tom Hardy, but most people probably havent seen that that arent in the industry.
Thats the interest and the intrigue into the filmmaking aspect.
This was $3 million, it was one location, one main character and 14 days.
Doug fed you some of the snipers lines, right?
Yeah, right, if not most of them.
It was like real guerilla style filmmaking.
Doug is an incredible filmmaker who just adapts to whatever is in front of him with no hesitation.
Its the most amazing thing to see, he just improvises with the environment thats around him.
So then we need to make the conflict harder, and we need to make the challenge harder.
The physicality of the role is intense.
Whats next for you?
So theres nothing else in the pipelines right now.
So, no more Godzilla movies for you?
Theyre set in a different time period I think!
The Wallis out in theaters now.
