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‘Dark Winds' Star Zahn McClarnon: 'I've Learned More in the Last Four Seasons Than in 30 Years'
‘Dark Winds' Star Zahn McClarnon: 'I've Learned More in the Last Four Seasons Than in 30 Years'

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

‘Dark Winds' Star Zahn McClarnon: 'I've Learned More in the Last Four Seasons Than in 30 Years'

Zahn McClarnon has been a film and TV actor for more than 30 years, and in that time, he's often played, as he puts it, 'the bad guy or Indian No. 1 over here by the tipi.' He went on to be featured in a succession of popular shows, including Longmire, Westworld and Fargo, as well as playing the quirky police officer (and Big Foot enthusiast) Big on FX's Reservation Dogs. So when George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford called him a few years ago asking him to be No. 1 on the call sheet for AMC's '70s-set Navajo detective series Dark Winds, there was no hesitation. What followed was a learning experience that surpassed anything he had done before, culminating in his upcoming directing debut in season four. The recently released third season saw McClarnon go deep into his character's past, uncovering repressed traumas that mirror experiences in McClarnon's own life, all while Joe Leaphorn tried to stop a murderer and reconcile his own morally questionable role in an earlier death. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jessica Biel, Meghann Fahy, Rashida Jones Dissect Their Characters' Complicated Emotions and the Challenges of Performing in Water 'Good Mythical Morning' Duo Rhett and Link Answer Five Burning Questions Grammys Reveal Key Dates for 2026 Awards, Unveil New Rules and Categories As we ease into Emmy season, the veteran actor hopped on a Zoom with THR to discuss the cultural strides that have been made, the role that he finds both hugely challenging and hugely rewarding, and how he untethers himself from his character at the end of the day. Joe Leaphorn is a complex character — he's got a lot of trauma and loss in his past, yet he's a mentor, leader and husband, too. What was it that originally drew you to playing him, and what are the things that excite you most as he continues to evolve? [Executive producers] Chris Eyre, Tina Elmo and George R.R. Martin came to me and asked if I wanted to be part of the show, and I was familiar with the Hillerman books [on which Dark Winds is based]. I'd read quite a few of them and I've read more since I started the show, but I was very familiar with Hillerman growing up and Chris Eyre is an old friend of mine. Just being part of a team with George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford is very exciting to me. Joe Leaphorn is already pretty much a fleshed-out character throughout the books, so it wasn't an easy task, but the foundation was already set for Joe and I just had to bring my own version of the characteristics he has. Just to be No. 1 [on the call sheet of a TV show] is a dream come true for an actor. I've been in the business for a long time, and these kinds of opportunities don't come along — especially for somebody like me, because I'm not the typical leading man. So, I jumped at the opportunity, and I've become very close to my new family in the last four seasons. And what I like about Joe Leaphorn and how he's changing is that he's got a lot going on and he's been through a lot, and to be able to explore those aspects of a character are a dream for any actor in this business. I recentlyand he pointed out how rare it is for a Native couple like Joe and his wife, Emma (Deanna Allison), to have their relationship shown in all its three-dimensionality. How do you feel about that relationship? We all grew up with the stereotypes, and we just have not seen these kinds of relationships with Native people on television, ever. To be able, as an actor, to explore being in a relationship as a Native man, I've never had an opportunity to do that before. So people are seeing different parts of our culture and of the Navajo culture and seeing these characters from a different perspective because we have the Native writing room and Native directors, Native producers, Native crew people. I've just had a wonderful time being on the show and we hope to keep going with it. And you're already in production on season four. We are. We're getting down to the last two episodes now. I understand you're making your directing debut this upcoming season. Have you gotten to work on that episode yet? Yeah, we've shot my episode, which is episode two. We shot that first so I had time to prep, because otherwise I wouldn't have time to prep being in almost every scene. It was a great experience. And I have wonderful people to learn from: [executive producers] Jim Chory, Tina Elmo, [dialogue coach] Rob Tepper, Chris Eyre, a great DP in Blake Evans and Dennis Crow is my first AD. I can take that and put it under my belt and maybe do it again, we'll see what happens. Why did you feel it was important or appealing to take on these additional roles of executive producing and directing at this point in your career? They asked me to be an EP on the show, they offered that to me, and to be able to have the opportunity to sit in all the production meetings and help with casting and give notes on scripts and edits of the episodes is brand new for me and it's been a wonderful learning experience. I've learned so much being on Dark Winds for the last four seasons, more than I've learned in the previous 30 years of being an actor, because you are completely involved in all aspects of production. And as far as directing, AMC asked me if I wanted to direct in the fourth season and I can't pass up an opportunity like that. It scared the heck out of me, it really did, being the number one [on the call sheet] and trying to direct. And I never had really any aspirations to direct, so when they asked me, it was just a huge learning opportunity for me to expand my horizons in this business. I've got a great team, and I knew that I wasn't going to fail with this team around me. The episode turned out really good, the story's being told and most importantly, AMC liked it. (Laughs.) So maybe we'll do it again, we'll see what happens. Looking back, did you have a favorite moment from season three? As an actor, you don't [often] get to be part of a character or show that develops over four seasons. It's not like a movie where you do this character for three months and you're done; I've been doing it now for four seasons, so those moments of realization were pretty special for me in season three. My character falling in love with his wife is a pretty special moment. And again, you rarely see that [with Native characters] on television. There was also some really tough content in season three. Was there an aspect of the season that was most challenging for you? The whole season was. It's a continued exploration of the tragedy that befell the Leaphorn family and the son's death and the consequences that come from that into what Joe Leaphorn did and his actions last season, and how it affects him mentally and his marriage with Emma. Just the struggle with guilt and the moral gray areas he's found himself in, the questioning of his decisions in season two with B.J. Vines: Did he really murder B.J. Vines or did he just leave B.J. Vines in the desert to fend for himself? Is that murder? Those choices have [led] him to a lot of fear and anxiety throughout the season, but also it's a growth season, more about self-understanding and healing and going back into his past and reconciling those traumatic events that affected him and his loved ones. It was a challenging season, but it's [also] fun to dive deep into those psychological issues that any character has and we've got a good writing team. You've said this season was cathartic for you as you tapped into experiences and traumas from your own past, which were similar to the relating to Joe's cousin when they were younger. What did that process entail for you? Great directors helped me through all that and just created a safe environment, along with my first ADs. We closed down some of the sets with only the camera people, the first AD and the actors. And I've got a great team around me that allowed me to be vulnerable and be in those moments. Yeah, I've had some past history with some very similar events in my life, so it's pretty easy to tap into a lot of that … trauma? Sure, I've dealt with a lot of stuff throughout my life and one of the things I enjoy about acting is to tap into that stuff and make it real, because if it's not real and not honest, it shows up on the camera. I could relate to a lot of what Joe had gone through, and it was cathartic. But mainly it was the environment, the trust of the people around me, that [allowed me] to be vulnerable and [still] feel safe. When you're dealing with such difficult, emotional content, how does it impact you? Do you find you take it home with you? There was a moment in season three that — I wish I could articulate this — the lines became blurred. As actors we have to make things real, they have to feel real in my body and I have to feel like I'm in that situation. So, you do find yourself in moments where it's very real, and the whole environment makes it [feel even] more real. We've got great production designers that make it feel like the '70s, and you have the dialogue and the script, so you get to [these] moments where you really feel like you're in that situation. And that's what we all strive for as actors. Again, I had this great team around me, so when I'm off the set and I'm still feeling that, I can go talk to them about it. Tina Elmo helped me out with that a lot, she held my hand or she hugged me. We talk through it, and then you come out of it. I think the main thing is the focus, that's what I have a hard time with. You're working a job for four months, and you're in it every day for 14 hours a day. It's that focus that the job requires, and it's hard to get out of. When the job is over, what do you do with all that focus? That's what I struggle with. So, what do you do? I've found things to help me with it, like taking off on a motorcycle for a month or going and hanging out with my mom or just driving in the car. I love driving, and I'll drive for a few days and go up and see my mom, and it helps me deal with losing all that focus, where I can replace it with somebody I love. I find different tools to deal with being that focused for so long and then dropping out of it immediately. And you know, they're healthy tools. (Laughs.) Back in the day, 25 years ago, I unfortunately had unhealthy ways to deal with some of that stuff. Today, it's healthy. That's important. By the way, what kind of motorcycle do you ride? I've got a couple bikes. I had four and I just got rid of a couple but they're all Harleys. I might be changing to a BMW GS, like a dual sport where I can do a little bit more gravel road, off-road, elastic stuff. Emmy nominations are coming, and you could be nominated. In recent years, several other Native actors have been. I wonder if you feel like that win is coming soon for a Native actor, and what it would mean to you? Oh, I think somebody's going to. We've got such great talent out there — D'Pharoah [Woon-A-Tai] was nominated last year for Rez Dogs, and Lily [Gladstone] came really close to winning the Academy Award. And we've got more content coming out. Sierra Ornelas just did a pilot for NBC, it's a Native comedy. We've just got too much talent out there for somebody not to get nominated or hopefully win one of those awards. And to be recognized by your community is a pretty cool thing. But we'll see what happens. Just to be in the conversation, to be honest with you, having a billboard or having people interviewing you, that's enough for me, it really is. People are recognizing the work you do. Speaking of , you also played on a police officer on that show. Do you have a special affinity for those characters? No, they just keep asking me to do them. (Laughs.) None of my family were in law enforcement or anything like that. I've learned quite a bit. On Longmire, I was a cop, too. And I did a film called The Silencing up in Canada with [Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau], where I played a cop. I just get cast as cops. I'm this little 5-foot-6-inch guy, it doesn't make sense to me, but I guess it's because I have (in a deep voice) a strong presence. (Laughs.) I'm not going to say no, though! Any last thoughts before I leave you? We're not a documentary but it's an opportunity to reeducate people about [Navajo] culture and the values of that culture and it can lead to people getting more involved politically [because they get] to peek into a different culture. And it's a beautiful thing to be part of a television show that's also opening doors for Native talent. That's important to me. If I walk away from this business, I can say I was involved with something that did open these doors for Native writers, Native directors, Native producers, Native crew people. It's so difficult to get your foot into this business, and we've given a lot of Native people a foothold and something to put on their résumé — even myself as a first-time director. It's just a wonderful thing that AMC is backing and getting behind it and I'm very, very grateful for it. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise

Casting News: Lifetime's Lucifer Reunion, Prison Break Addition and More
Casting News: Lifetime's Lucifer Reunion, Prison Break Addition and More

Yahoo

time03-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Casting News: Lifetime's Lucifer Reunion, Prison Break Addition and More

Lucifer alumni Lesley-Ann Brandt and Aimee Garcia are set to star with Taye Diggs (Private Practice) in the Lifetime movie Terry McMillan Presents: His, Hers & Ours, due out later this year. The premise: Single father Darius (played by Diggs) discovers his teenage daughter in bed with her boyfriend Chase, and wastes no time kicking him out. However, a knock at the door changes everything — it's Chase's mother, Kelly (Brandt), furious and ready for confrontation. Buuuuut… forced to spend time together due to their children's relationship, Kelly and Darius slowly develop feelings for each other. More from TVLine Shrinking Boss Bill Lawrence Tees Up Reunion With His 'Hero' Michael J. Fox, Shares Favorite Spin City Memory Ncuti Gatwa Bids Doctor Who Farewell as Finale Ends With a Most Surprising Twist - Grade It! Lester Holt Signs Off as NBC Nightly News Anchor - Will You Miss Him? Diggs and Brandt will both also serve as executive producers on the TV-movie, while Garcia will play Sofia, Kelly's best friend who grows suspicious of the budding relationship. In other recent casting news… * Hulu's Prison Break reboot has added Priscilla Delgado (A League of Their Own) as Cheyenne, a prison inmate and the girlfriend of a prisoner in the men's unit just a floor away; Deadline first reported on the casting. * NBC's single-cam comedy pilot set at a Native American community center in Oakland, Calif. has cast Jana Schmieding (Rutherford Falls), Bobby Wilson (Reservation Dogs), Wes Studi (Reservation Dogs) and SNL vet Rachel Dratch, per Variety. * Presenters for this Sunday's Tony Awards, airing live on CBS starting at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT, include Aaron Tveit, Adam Lambert, Alex Winter, Allison Janney, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Bryan Cranston, Carrie Preston, Charli D'Amelio, Danielle Brooks, Jean Smart, Jesse Eisenberg, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Kelli O'Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Lea Michele, Lea Salonga, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michelle Williams, Oprah, Rachel Bay Jones, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Samuel L. Jackson, Sara Bareilles and Sarah Paulson. * Country stars Cody Johnson and Ashley McBryde will host this year's CMA Fest, airing Thursday, June 26 at 8/7c on ABC (and streaming on Hulu the following day). Hit the comments with your thoughts on the above castings! Best of TVLine Stars Who Almost Played Other TV Roles — on Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Lost, Gilmore Girls, Friends and Other Shows TV Stars Almost Cast in Other Roles Fall TV Preview: Who's In? Who's Out? Your Guide to Every Casting Move!

Buffy reboot has a new slayer: Hulu casts Ryan Kiera Armstrong in lead role
Buffy reboot has a new slayer: Hulu casts Ryan Kiera Armstrong in lead role

Digital Trends

time15-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Digital Trends

Buffy reboot has a new slayer: Hulu casts Ryan Kiera Armstrong in lead role

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has found its lead in Ryan Kiera Armstrong. The Skeleton Crew will star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, who will executive produce and reprise her role as the iconic Buffy Summers. On her Instagram, Gellar shared a video where she announced the news to Armstrong. Recommended Videos 'How do you feel about helping me save the world?' Gellar asked Armstrong. 'You want to be my chosen one?' An overjoyed Armstrong broke down in tears and thanked Gellar for 'trusting' her with the role. 'From the moment I saw Ryan's audition, I knew there was only one girl that I wanted by my side,' Gellar wrote in the caption. 'To have that kind of emotional intelligence, and talent, at such a young age is truly gift. The bonus is that her smile lights up even the darkest room.' Armstrong is best known for playing Fern in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Charlie Mcgee in the Firestarter remake. Armstrong will next appear in a guest role in Stick, Owen Wilson's Apple TV+ golf comedy. Later this year, Armstrong stars alongside Ethan Hawke in FX's The Lowdown, a new series from Reservation Dogs' Sterlin Harjo. The Buffy reboot received a pilot order at Hulu in February. Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, the showrunners on Poker Face season 1, will write, showrun, and executive produce the untitled reboot. 'We are so overjoyed to have found this generation's slayer in Ryan Kiera Armstrong, she absolutely blew us away — there is no question in our mind that she is the chosen one,' the Zuckermans said in a statement. Oscar winner Chloé Zhao will executive produce and direct the pilot. Plot details remain under wraps. Armstrong's slayer is expected to be a high-school student. The next chapter in the Buffyverse comes from 20th Television and Searchlight TV. Buffy the Vampire ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003. Stream the entire series on Hulu or Disney+.

The Catharsis in Re-Creating One of the Worst Days of Your Life
The Catharsis in Re-Creating One of the Worst Days of Your Life

Atlantic

time07-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Atlantic

The Catharsis in Re-Creating One of the Worst Days of Your Life

This article includes spoilers for the film Warfare. Since 2012, Ray Mendoza has been building a hefty Hollywood résumé: performing stunts, choreographing gunfights, and teaching movie stars how to act like soldiers in films such as Act of Valor and Lone Survivor. He also helped design the battle sequences in last year's Civil War, the writer-director Alex Garland's speculative thriller imagining America as an endless combat zone. These projects have been a particularly good fit for him. Mendoza is a former Navy SEAL; two decades ago, during the Iraq War, he was part of a platoon scouting a residential area in Ramadi. One day in November 2006, al-Qaeda forces injured two of his teammates and then exploded an IED while American soldiers attempted to extract the pair. Trapped in a single building, the group waited for a new convoy of rescue tanks that wouldn't arrive for hours. The events are depicted in the film Warfare, now streaming, which Mendoza wrote and directed with Garland. Over the course of a brisk 95 minutes, the viewer watches as the platoon goes from carrying out a typical surveillance exercise to trying to evacuate without harming anyone else. (The skirmish was part of the Battle of Ramadi, an eight-month conflict that left more than 1,000 soldiers, insurgents, and civilians dead.) Yet, for all the combat Warfare depicts, the film doesn't resemble most military movies. Members of the platoon—played by an ensemble of rising stars, including Will Poulter, Charles Melton, and Reservation Dogs ' D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Mendoza—exchange little dialogue, rarely trading first names let alone backstories. Up until the al-Qaeda forces discover their hideout, the action is contained to mundane activities: confirming operations, tracking other platoons' movements. There are no extraneous set pieces to keep the audience's attention, no rousing speeches from world leaders, no context provided about why Ramadi was important to American interests during the Iraq War. The result is a war movie that's mostly a war movie in name only—which is how Mendoza told me he wanted it. In real life, one of the wounded SEALs, Elliott Miller (played by Shōgun 's Cosmo Jarvis), never recovered his memory after getting caught in the IED blast. Miller's inability to recall the day's events inspired Mendoza to reconstruct them meticulously. When Mendoza and Garland began developing Warfare, they interviewed as many members of the platoon as they could, corroborating details until they had a version of the experience that they hoped would feel authentic to the people involved. The film makes clear that, to the co-directors, war is a hell made of never-ending protocols, of compartmentalized emotions, of intense bonds built among people taught to move as one indistinguishable unit. As Mendoza put it to me, 'I just wanted to do an accurate representation of what combat was.' And, he added, 'I wanted to re-create it because my friend doesn't remember it.' After the IED explodes, Elliott isn't the only one horrifically injured. Sam (played by Joseph Quinn) wakes to find himself on fire, his legs mangled. For what feels like hours on end to the viewer, Sam howls in pain as his teammates drag him to safety. Warfare is largely devoid of the hallmarks of a Hollywood film—there's no musical score, for instance—and Sam's cries highlight the film's naturalism; they are screams that the movie suggests were as nerve-shredding for Sam's teammates to hear in real life as they are for audience members to hear at home. But Joe Hildebrand, the SEAL on whom Sam is based, told me that he was unaffected by Quinn's performance when he watched it during a visit to the set. 'Everybody kept asking me, 'You okay?'' he recalled. 'I said, 'I'm fine.' I know the outcome. I know how it's gonna turn out.' Hildebrand found the set itself, which was built on a former World War II airfield turned film studio outside London, more visceral. Warfare 's crew had meticulously reconstructed the house in which the SEALs hid; looking around, Hildebrand explained, brought back 'little memories'—a conversation he had here, the way a teammate stood there. Together with the real Elliott, who had also stopped by the set, Hildebrand described experiencing a surprising mix of emotions as they exited the house. 'The feeling of going out that gate again, into the street—the last time we did, it did not turn out well at all,' he said. 'It was an odd feeling, but it was a glorious feeling at the same time, because you knew nothing was going to happen on the other side.' As such, despite its intensity, Warfare offers some semblance of satisfaction—and not just for the SEALs whose memories have been rendered on-screen. Many movies, Mendoza said, have contributed to perpetuating distressing stereotypes about veterans—that they're all suffering from PTSD, too tortured and traumatized to function. He wanted Warfare to push back against generalizations by keeping the audience at an emotional remove. The movie's portrayal of the front lines stays focused on the action. 'Is it disturbing? Yeah,' Mendoza told me of the film's observational nature. 'But it's truthful.' For Hildebrand, being able to revisit the incident and talk with Mendoza about it was therapeutic. After everyone returned home, he told me, their platoon 'kind of just coexisted. Everybody was still friends, but we didn't have parties and get-togethers and even just time to sit down and talk and get those stories out.' Hildebrand said that Warfare enabled him to corroborate his memories with the other men who were there. (He made it clear that he couldn't speak for everyone; some of the SEALs couldn't be reached, and the names of 14 of the 20 men involved have been changed in the film to protect their identity.) For Mendoza, the process of talking about the incident with other members of the platoon, and with Garland, meant having someone 'explaining it back to you probably even in a better way than you described it to them in the first place. And then you feel heard, you feel understood. You're like, Okay, finally I think I'm able to let this go.' Still, Mendoza said, 'Just because the movie's done doesn't mean we're healed.' Every blunder seems to have lingered in their minds: In one scene, Lieutenant Macdonald (Michael Gandolfini) accidentally injects morphine into his own hand while trying to ease Elliott's pain. In another, Erik (Poulter), a captain who had largely ensured that everyone remained calm, suddenly chokes while instructing the platoon on what to do. Some men even kick Sam's legs as they pass by him, a misguided display of bravado that fails to raise spirits and only injures him further. Warfare opens with a scene set the night before the incident; in it, the platoon members hype themselves up by watching the notoriously racy music video for Eric Prydz's ' Call on Me,' swaying together as one big, sweaty, testosterone-fueled mass. The movie ends on a shot of the silent Ramadi street after the gunfire has faded. In between, the film, like Civil War, never delves into the politics of the conflict; it neither commends nor condemns the fighting. It just leaves the audience with the sense that the hours the group spent trapped irrevocably changed them. For Mendoza, the explosion that incapacitated his teammates 'rewired' his brain; he told me he's been dreaming about what happened for 20 years. Some of his dreams echo reality. Others, including one in which Elliott gets back up after the explosion and is completely unharmed, are so fantastical and disorienting that Mendoza wishes he won't ever wake up. Working on the film has helped him dissipate some of that confusion. 'I don't know what's real and what's not real sometimes,' he said. But making Warfare 'helped organize those memories and cancel out which ones weren't real,' he told me. 'It just kind of keeps these memories in line.'

Warfare star hails honest portrayal of war and calls other movies 'a lie'
Warfare star hails honest portrayal of war and calls other movies 'a lie'

Yahoo

time15-04-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Warfare star hails honest portrayal of war and calls other movies 'a lie'

Warfare has never quite been depicted in the way it is in Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's film of the same name, with a level of authenticity that doesn't glorify or shy away from the brutality of it, which is something star D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai tells Yahoo UK he hopes will make the film a warning. The film recounts the experiences that Iraq veteran Mendoza and his fellow Navy Seals faced in real life in 2006, when they had to fight their way out of a hideout when attacked by enemy combatants. Not only is it an unflinching depiction of what they experienced it also features a cast who are the age they actually were when they were sent to fight — something not often seen in Hollywood. It's because of this that Woon-A-Tai, who plays Mendoza, hopes the film will encourage lawmakers and leaders to rethink their actions: "If I may speak personally, I just hope that whomever decides to start wars, or to send people to wars, I hope they watch this film and see how young the people that they're sending out to the front lines are. I feel like in other Hollywood films, the depiction of how young the soldiers are is a lie. "I feel like we see them a lot older than they really are, and that's one of the great accomplishments of this film that I'm proud of is the fact of how young we are depicted, because a lot of the men that we played were in their early 20s, basically kids. So for the people to see kids on the front lines instead of your 30 year old buff guy, and just see a kid there it's a different experience and I hope people who do make those decisions, or who do vote for wars or whatever the case may be, really acknowledges who they're sending to these front lines. This film really does show the consequences of those decisions." The actor who made his name in Reservation Dogs is part of an incredible ensemble which includes the likes of Kit Connor, Cosmo Jarvis, Will Poulter, Michael Gandolfini, and Joseph Quinn amongst many others. It is a story of brotherhood in an impossibly difficult situation. Gandolfini, who plays Lt. Macdonald, hailed Mendoza and Garland's approach to the narrative, sharing: "The point is to tell the most honest depiction of what happened that day and through that honesty came a lot of consequences of that day, and a lot of very painful things came out of that day and that's just the facts. "Alex and Ray, as men, are two of the most honest people I've ever met and it's touching and inspiring and incredible, and they were there every day to ensure that the most honest depiction of humanity in this situation of these men were being accurately depicted, and they did that with such class and excitement. "There would be moments that someone may have an idea that would be great in the film, but if it didn't happen it didn't happen, can't be added, and so they were our leaders completely in this whole thing." Connor remarked that it "was a lot" for the cast but it was also an important thing for them to do in order to achieve Mendoza's vision. "There was definitely an undertaking for sure," he explains. "I think we all worked very hard, but we wanted to work very hard. It was a product of a lot of things, honesty was the main priority. We wanted to make sure that everything was truthful and that every action was everything that happened to them. "The film is based on these people's memories and everything's been corroborated through these memories. So filling in the gaps and trying to work our characters would do —if we were waiting for five minutes for attack or for Bradley to come up— and we wanted that to feel truthful and authentic." "It was definitely difficult at times," the Heartstopper actor went on. "It had its challenges, but the fact that we all had this bond and this supportive nurturing environment [helped]. "It was a very, very loving and supportive environment to come to work to every day. It was like every I wanted to come to work, everyday I was really happy to be there and happy to be with all of these people. I feel the same now promoting the movie, I'm happy to be here with everyone and to talk about this film because I think it's really important." Warfare premieres in cinemas on Friday, 18 April.

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