The tragic story of SEAL Team 10 and Operation Red Wings is hitting the big screen this Christmas.
We talk to the cast.
There is an emotional and physical toll that must have been on all of you.
Im wondering, with the families, how did they embrace you?
Did you become like their adopted sons?
Dan Senior, Dans father, says the same thing.
Were going to Denver on the twelfth and were going to do a big family screening.
Im really looking forward to that.
Aside from being really wonderful people, theyre also really smart.
We e-mail back and forth.
Hes been amazingly supportive, from that first dinner from the first time I met him.
I finally met the rest of Murphs family at the premiere.
Like Emile is doing now, Im going to Long Island on Monday.
Its going to be an amazing night.
Mark Wahlberg:Marcus doesnt like me at all [Laughs].
Hes a very special individual.
I wanted to know him and see the kind of man that he is.
Im certainly inspired to be a better man because of him.
Theres an intense scene in the movie where you rope down a cliff; it was crazy.
How did you physically prepare for that?
But everybody was there.
But, you know, we just did what was required.
There were bumps and bruises, but we wanted it to feel real.
The falls or certain parts of a gun battle.
Then I would run back off to Pete, and wed be in the village doing that stuff.
It was kind of all over the place.
So a lot of times youre going to get your ass kicked.
You knew it was going to happen, but every day it was rough.
It was never about one individual; It was about telling those guys stories.
What is the emotional approach to playing a character that is real, as opposed to fictional?
I feel like that really influences you in such a strong way.
Youre not like trying to find an emotion or something like that, because thats already there.
Your heart has already been filled up.
Youre just doing a scene, and its so real because it is so real.
You learn about what this persons like.
Its hard to describe.
TK:Id echo the same thing.
Being opposite great actors too always helps.
And they have all had friends that have fallen.
It was such a reminder that this isnt some action sequence to them.
These are some of the hardest moments, emotionally, of these guys lives.
TK:[Peter Bergs] process is a very enabling process for the actors.
Youre so embedded in these characters that the trust is prevalent.
That really helped us as well.
This film really meant a lot to me.
I saw it last night.
I have a friend who has served in Afghanistan as a medic and you guys really nailed it.
Do you think that any of you would actually go through real SEAL training?
Eric Bana:Which sucker is going to go first?
I would want the ball.
So you would think.
But its not a question of a physical ability.
So I dont know.
I have no idea.
EB:Marcus tells great stories of when he went through that.
Youd look around the room and I.D.
guys who would get through, just based on how they looked.
Theyd just look like cage fighters.
Did he come through the wrong door?
As Mark was saying, it really is so much of a mental thing.
I think thats whats so fascinating, when you read about the training.
Theyre just made of something else.
EH:Marcus also made a really good point, yesterday to us.
Theres no way, really, of knowing what exactly makes a SEAL.
Youre bringing groups of the toughest of the tough guys together and they still dont know.
Its a unique bang out of training that just filters the SEALs from the non-SEALs.
This movie is so unrelentingly tension filled.
Its just a draining experience for the audience.
I wonder, for each of you, why exactly you wanted to do this.
What is the story you felt youre telling with Lone Survivor?
The people I have talked to have had all these different reactions about what the movie is about.
What was it about it that made it so irresistible?
TK:This is a film that struck a chord with me on a very personal level.
These are guys who are willing to put themselves on the line and fight for their country.
To me, it wasnt a political film.
Should we not be here?
It wasnt about that.
This was about soldiers that were willing to give everything they had.
The key in of courage it takes to do that.
There are ones that need to be there and need to happen.
This is representative of the best guys that we have doing this.
I think that guys like that deserve to be honored, to have their story told.
We live in a world where there is a 24/7 news cycle.
Its 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 that theyve made.
MW:Yes, I agree.
Well said, my friend.
EB:I was a really big fan of Marcuss book.
Id read it some years ago.
They are all amazing people.
They perform an amazing function.
And not every film has this experience.
We all make different kinds of movies all the time.
That doesnt come along every day.
I think we all felt that there was that sense in this one.
Then when I read it, I realized what the movie was about, my perspective changed.
It was never about me after that again.
It was a very unique set of circumstances that Ive never experienced as an actor before.
Even when watching the film, I dont think about what we did.
I think about what happened to those guys and what Marcus was able to endure.
To be able to survive and tell the story of his brothers, that was a very special thing.
Its a tribute to their loved ones and anyone who suffered losses.
Mark, you said the film weighed heavily on you because it was so intense.
You had your family close by on set.
Does that help, when you come home at the end of the day and your family is around?
Its just like trying to shut off what they just came from.
Its always comforting to have your family there.
Theyre here now, which is nice.
Do you know if that part with the duck really happened?
TK:I dont know if there is one specific part.
When you meet the father and you really get so deep within the community.
Maybe its the pressure you put on yourself to make it potentially what it deserves to be.
Its really hard to pinpoint what it is.
We were on a SWAT range in Albuquerque.
When we first started working with the M4 rifle.
So we were all blowing through over a thousand rounds a day of real bullets.
I think that was just us jumping into the deep end and working with targets.
We all learned to trust each other really quickly because we had to.
Everybody just had to be really on point, because these are obviously incredibly dangerous weapons.
They used the word destroy.
They dont use that word lightly.
That was something that was challenging and also a bonding experience for all of us.
We learned quickly that we could trust each other.
And that meant a lot to us.
Did it alter you thinking on wars after playing these characters?
MW:I didnt read the book before I made the movie because I had read the screenplay version.
I think we did a really good job writing the screenplay.
I dont like war but I love soldiers.
Theyre not the guys who decide whether or not theyre going in and they dont really care.
They have a job to do and they go and they do it.
Would it be nice to live in world without it?
Youre more connected so yeah, its definitely changed.
Can you talk about working with Peter as an actors director?
TK:He could still give notes through a bullhorn.
It really cuts through a lot of the bullshit.
Thats something for me as an actor that I appreciate.
He has all that understanding already.
MW:Theres no room for sensitivity up on the hill.
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