anecdote by Ben Hunter, who plays "JJ" in
the film
One of the most amazing moments in my
preparation for the role was trying on the costumes. I had no idea
what I was getting into. We spent a great deal of time in Maratier's
costume warehouse just outside of Paris choosing the appropriate
outfits and props. Trying on the WWII soldier outfit was very weird and
made me feel like a different person. In fact, they told us that all
the
costumes were authentic and some of the helmets had actually been used
by young American soldiers in Normandie. I was quite impressed by this,
and throughout the shooting of the film it reminded me that I was
playing a part in a story that might have actually happened.
When we first arrived in Normandie, Lee was very worried that our
costumes were not looking as if they had actually been used. They
really did look extremely clean and new and so, for the first
afternoon, we were told to dig holes and trenches in a field and get as
much dirt and mud on our clothes as we could. While very entertaining,
it turned out to be pointless because after it rained on the first day
of
shooting, there was so much mud on the set that we
were trying to keep our costumes from being completely soaked in mud! I
shed about 5 pounds during that
weekend just because it was so hard to walk around ankle deep in mud
while carrying a heavy weapon. At least we looked more
"authentic" that way!
anecdote
by Lee F. Sullivan, director
The
single hardest thing for me as the director of "War Machine" was to be
working
bilingually; I directed the actors in English, and the crew in French.
I
haven't studied French beyond my junior year in high school (15 years
ago).
As if a director's normal workload isn't draining enough, I felt like I
was
drowning in technical french film vocabulary. I always felt like I was
communicating
with the crew more by gestures than words; imagine a director saying,
"Put
the thing on the thing with the other thing..."
One funny example of this was when we were
discussing the framing of
a certain shot. The cameraman suggested we do what they call an
"American
Shot"
in France. They seemed surprised that I didn't know what this was;
"You're
American, don't you know what an American shot is?" I asked them if
they
call them "French Fries" or "French Toast" in France, and they got the
point.
It turns out that an American Shot is a medium-wide shot, showing head
to
mid-thigh; a classic framing in American Westerns to show both the face
and
the gun holsters. It's not just that you have to know the tech-talk or
normal
everyday french slang; you also have to learn the film-specific slang.
anecdote
by Derrick Brenner, who plays "Muller" in the film
What I remember best from this film was a few days when all the
actors were in period uniforms: 2 Germans and 3 Americans. We
would all relax in between takes and sing songs, snack or smoke an
authentic WWII cigarette (no filters and a different tasting
tobacco). The sun shone really bright one day and we just lay
there napping, soaking in the rays, and going over our lines; you
wouldn't have thought the film had such a tight shooting
schedule. Lee was a pleasure to work with. He created this
warm ambiance on the set for everybody: the actors and the crew.
I knew I could approach him and ask him anything or express myself in
whatever way I wanted. A good trait for a film director.
His extensive research on the period also helped me answer any
questions I still had about my character.
anecdote
by Kartik Singh, who plays "Fry" in the film
On our first day of shooting, we were rehearsing for the camera.
There we were in Normandy, France, in real army uniforms, worn by real
soldiers, surrounded by so many authentic details from 1944. And
when it comes time for Fry to say, "Hey, Sarge, 'bout time for some
grub", I pulled out a bright red McDonald's cardboard french-fry
container. It got a lot of laughs. I can't take credit for
it though. Steve Croce slipped it to me just before.
[Steve] Croce smoked real filterless cigarettes - and there were quite
a few takes. As we see in the film, he really put them out with
his fingers. He would also throw them away unfinished, and in
between takes, our chainsmoking stills photographer Nico Birot would go
and find the discarded butts and smoke them, the fiend. We went
through a lot of cigarettes. By the end, I was glad that my
character was the giver and not the receiver of the cigarettes in the
story!
