Go behind the scenes of 'Warfare' with Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Charles Melton as they share their unforgettable experience bringing this powerful story to life. From getting matching “Call on Me” tattoos to honor the real-life soldiers, to strict schedules and intense boot camp training, the cast fully immersed themselves in their roles. Hear how Ray Mendoza’s real-life experience shaped the script and how the cast uplifted each other for the best performances possible.
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00:00So we got a tattoo, I got it under my, a bunch of us got it under my underwear.
00:03I thought a slightly more appropriate place would be the arm.
00:05Come on.
00:06Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:06I got it under the underwear.
00:07Come on.
00:08There you go.
00:09There it is.
00:09You getting this?
00:10Alright, fine, I'll show them.
00:11Tattoos, Joe or Will can go first.
00:30So I have a tattoo on my soul from this experience.
00:38And maybe by the time of this coming out, you might have it tattooed on your wall.
00:42I might need to go somewhere with Will Poulter.
00:44Joe and I made a commitment that we are yet to sort of immortalise, and we plan to, I think.
00:51I didn't know if we were going to stay in touch.
00:53I know I did, but I still, like, me, like, actually.
01:00Us three all got it, us three all got it.
01:02I've got it.
01:03Yeah, it's the song in the beginning of the film when it opens up, you know, you see us chilling around there.
01:07We got a call on me, a little cheesy metaphor that we can all call on each other.
01:10Serious note, you know, that's the, you know, that's the same song that it became a tradition for these guys.
01:14Before they would leave, they would, you know, watch this music video.
01:17So that became a little tradition with us, too.
01:18Somebody would play it right in the morning, you know, and it would hype us up.
01:21Alpha 2, we might have guys starting to move in our position.
01:24Copy, we're getting a buildup of activity here, too.
01:26Yeah, I definitely see weapons at this point.
01:28Yeah, we have definite massing.
01:34I remember reading the script, and it's unlike anything I've ever read before.
01:39More of a transcript based off of Ray's memory along with the other servicemen that were in the platoon.
01:45There was an intensive process with Ray and Alex, and they met with everybody individually.
01:50You know, I was very lucky enough to play somebody who's the director, co-directing, co-writing.
01:54He was very open in discussing us and a lot of experiences he had throughout his military career.
02:00I just got to know the guy, really, you know, as much as he wanted to share, you know,
02:04because I know it was a very sensitive topic for him to, you know, to bring out there.
02:08I mean, there was a lot of pressure, you know, to get it right.
02:10Ray's a very stoic guy.
02:11You know, I heard, especially from a lot of the veterans who were there that day,
02:13that he just kind of turned everything off and just went on autopilot.
02:16We have a severely wounded.
02:17Who's a severely wounded?
02:18It's not you.
02:19It's me.
02:19Who is it?
02:20No, it's not you.
02:21When you're playing people that have endured such extraordinary circumstances,
02:27there's a sensitivity that you can't really apply to any other context on a film set.
02:32These men live the consequences of what happened on this afternoon.
02:36And so there was a kind of a level of reverence and discipline.
02:41We were all there in service of Ray, who was there in service of his friend.
02:45Because these men that we were playing were and are very humble and often don't like to talk about the real details of what they did,
02:56one of the things that I found the most beneficial was talking to some of the other men that were there,
03:01because they would give you a really interesting perspective.
03:03Like my character that I was playing, there are a lot of things that he regrets not doing, necessarily.
03:09And the subjective nature of memory, just chiming in.
03:12This idea that different people remembered things differently.
03:17Ray would, from his recounting of what happened, it would be in direct contrast with someone else's, to an extent.
03:24So that was quite an interesting exercise.
03:35How's it going?
03:38Going well.
03:42That's that new guy energy.
03:45We went bowling on the first weekend.
03:48My nickname on the thing was Funkle, but it never stuck.
03:51It didn't stick.
03:52Everyone was just like, Joe.
03:54Because he's not really that fun, or an uncle.
03:57Just Joe felt more appropriate.
03:59Kids was Babyface.
04:01Mine was Babyface.
04:02Explain yourself.
04:03DP, Baby Ray, Dozer.
04:05You nicknamed yourself Top.
04:07Originally we called Charles Romeo, because he's a bit of a romantic.
04:15That was a problem on radio, because you might legitimately say Romeo in place of the R.
04:21So he decided, hey, can you call me Top?
04:24This is my dad's.
04:25And his dad's name was Top, so it felt apt.
04:29And you earned it.
04:30Willie P was Daddy, obviously.
04:33We were walking back from a curry house, and we were all not drunk even a drop.
04:42We were just high on life.
04:44I can't remember who said it, but someone was just like, oh, what if we started calling Will Daddy?
04:49And we had this great idea of, oh, we can call him Daddy in front of Alex and Ray, and they'll hate that, and it's going to be great.
04:54They loved it.
04:55And for some reason, everyone loved it, and it stuck.
04:58Mainly because my main role was reminding lads when laundry day was, and things like that.
05:03It was like, get in the car, we're going now.
05:05The boot camp ran for about three and a half weeks.
05:07And the boot camp was kind of a condensed simulation of what's known as BUDS, which is Basic Underwater Demolition Seal Training.
05:14Naturally, as a group of actors, we were only learning to simulate as much as possible what these seals learn over the course of several years.
05:22So there was only so much we were going to be able to realistically achieve.
05:27More than anything else, it required us to spend so much time with each other, pushing ourselves further than many of us had ever been, both physically and emotionally.
05:35And that process and going through that together was very, very unifying.
05:39We fell back, not just on our training and the skill set that we developed, but also those friendships and those bonds when it came to performing on screen.
05:57Here's the plan.
05:58EA, five minutes over.
05:59Scouts are going to lead us out, and I'm bringing up the rear.
06:02Clap smoke.
06:03Smoke out.
06:04We are all coming back.
06:07Right off the bat, Ray came up to Joe, Will, and I and kind of established leadership based off of our roles.
06:15You know, it held us accountable with all the guys throughout the whole process, not just the responsibility to the story, but to each other.
06:23And it really was a methodology that informed the process when it came to filming.
06:29The language, the military, the SEAL language is very alien, and we communicated like that throughout the whole experience.
06:38We all got watches.
06:39We would show up to set, and whether it was Will or Joe, sometimes me, you know.
06:45Will's like, all right, it's 0612.
06:49Food opens up at 0630.
06:51Be done by 0700.
06:53Get through the rigs and hair and makeup by 0730, and we're going to depart for the marquee at 0745 in order to start blocking onset at 0815.
07:06Like, it was very regimented.
07:08I'd catch myself sometimes sort of remembering how unorthodox that is for a film set.
07:15Because, you know, we'd have a task or a challenge, and Will would be working out what to do.
07:23And I would kind of go, oh, well, maybe we should do this.
07:26And Will would go, just give me like two minutes of quiet.
07:30And I'd immediately go, yes, sir.
07:32And then I think I would sort of stop myself and go, wow, on a normal film set, that would be really strange.
07:38It always felt like everyone was an equal on the set.
07:42The leadership aspect really just gave us a support system.
07:47When we would do these intense scenes that lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
07:52Like, there was just like this, we were so tight with each other that it just helped everything.
07:58It really bled into the culture.
07:59And Alex was very clear about if we were to try and pull this film off in the amount of shooting days that we had, we had very little time to wait around.
08:08And so the culture that we established in the boot camp bled into the shooting days where Will many times would be calling out the shot.
08:15There's a hierarchy in film sets anyway. There just is.
08:19And so I think there was clarity and precision and everyone knew what was going on.
08:24I mean, it saved a lot of time.
08:26Whilst there was, as Kit mentioned, a quality and a lot of care there, it was brilliant having a spearhead through it all.
08:34I thought it was beautiful that the production very much kind of, in a sense, separated themselves from us.
08:38If I wanted to know what scene we're going to do next, I asked Will.
08:40It kind of kept us in this group together still.
08:42Right.
08:43Like I would have to ask permission for Will to use the washroom.
08:45I mean, he was going to let me anyways, but, you know, we do that.
08:48I hope I never said no.
08:49Yeah, no, exactly.
08:51Two minutes out.
08:52Two minutes.
08:53Where are you guys?
08:54Look for the blood in the smoke.
08:55Multiple bad guys trying to get to our position.
08:57Inbound, inbound.
08:58Don't cover anything.
09:01Joe said something really beautiful earlier, which was like, you never really felt like you were doing anything alone.
09:06You're a teammate before you're an individual.
09:08Right.
09:09And like in any given moment, if a guy stepped away, you would be required to give a head count of who else was there.
09:15And you should be aware of the fact that you're not like an entire company if someone has stepped away.
09:20And that just kind of spoke to the level of awareness and consciousness that we had for each other and what we were going through, through the experience.
09:27I think the best thing that I've learned from this experience is that it's not just about the team.
09:31I think the best thing that I've learned from this experience is that it's not just about the team.
09:38I think the best example of our trust with each other, our learning or our learning process, was when we had our little experiment.
09:45With the stretcher?
09:46Yes, yes.
09:47Simulation stretcher, where we had to go out in the field and rescue one of our people.
09:51That was right, if I'm not mistaken, right near the end of our training boot camp.
09:54We just learned a bunch of military training and we got to use it.
09:57We had to walk very far, you know,
09:58carrying somebody on a stretcher, you know,
09:59and we took turns, you know, not like,
10:01oh, I don't want to do it, no.
10:02Like, we, you know, if our brother needed it, you know,
10:04and some kid carries a jug of water on his shoulder,
10:07he would happily go and carry that, too.
10:08And it really, like, bled into our work day.
10:11Just, like, the emotional, just, like, the crying
10:14and everything, the intensity of that trauma.
10:16I'm like, that was on for, like, days.
10:19And those cameras, you have to be on,
10:20because you never know if the camera's going to catch you.
10:22And everyone was giving everything,
10:25every take.
10:26And it's tiring, it was exhausting,
10:28but, you know, we did it for each other.
10:30And I think that just really shows in the film.
10:32When you see the, you know, us talk on communications
10:34with our, you know, on our radios,
10:36those are the other actors.
10:38That's really Cowboy, I mean, that's really Evan,
10:40you know what I mean?
10:41That's really, you know, Michael sitting
10:41on the other side watching.
10:42They were there every single day.
10:44And Charles.
10:44Oh, and Charles.
10:45Charles was there a lot.
10:46And Charles Milton.
10:47Yes, yes.
10:48Charles was there.
10:49Who is wonderful.
10:49Charles, yeah.
10:50No, but exactly, though.
10:51Like, the dedication that these guys brought, you know?
10:53I mean, I wasn't talking to a PA,
10:55I was talking to a real actor, you know?
10:56And you rarely want to talk to an actor more than a PA,
10:59just want to be clear.
11:00Yeah.
11:01So that's.
11:02Yeah.
11:02It was a lovely culture to establish on a film set.
11:04There was challenges, obviously,
11:06but I think the fact that we were able to establish
11:08this kind of collective accountability,
11:13and that's when, like, doing this job is,
11:16it expands your consciousness,
11:17and it expands your idea of life
11:20without trying to get too lofty.
11:21But you're very conscious of taking every day
11:24and being like, this is an amazing day.
11:26We were all very aware that this kind of experience
11:30doesn't happen all the time.
11:32Right.
11:32What were you, how many?
11:35You said it.
11:36How many hours did we shoot in the first day?
11:38Yeah, it's a good question.
11:39I think in the first day,
11:40we were two days ahead of schedule.
11:41And I'm glad you mentioned that,
11:42because you can't talk about that
11:43without giving, like, the credit to the camera team,
11:46who moved so incredibly quickly.
11:48Yeah, they were their own unit, in a way.
11:51They were in front of explosions, recoil coming,
11:53I mean, the shells coming out, hitting them all the time.
11:57Yeah, they were really in it.
11:57You told me last night that in one day we shot
12:0182 sounds.
12:0282 setups, which is a ridiculous amount for a film set.
12:06Personally, I mean,
12:09we'll all take our own things away from this.
12:12I personally came out of it
12:16with some pretty strong opinions
12:18about conflict and war,
12:19and I'm sure we all did.
12:22But it was very specific.