While making “Warfare,” writer/director Ray Mendoza had to contend with the tricky matter of memory.
The film is about a platoon of Navy SEALS on a mission gone horribly wrong. The mission is based on one that Mendoza, a former SEAL, actually experienced, the film’s events a conglomeration of the memories of Mendoza and other members of the SEAL team that were there that day. The decision to make the movie stemmed from a desire to honor one of the platoon members, who suffered a brain injury during the mission.
Mendoza co-wrote and directed the film with the filmmaker Alex Garland. Mendoza served as a military advisor on Garland’s film “Civil War,” and if you remember the war sequences from that film, you might have a good idea of what you’re in for with “Warfare.” There’s not too much time for character development (“Warfare” follows the events of the mission in real time), but the action’s authenticity, harrowing as it may be, puts you on a knife’s edge for the film’s 95-minute runtime.
While there may not be too much time for us to get to know the members of this platoon before their day descends into hell, in a clever bit of casting the ensemble includes numerous young stars who audiences already have an attachment to, such as Charles Melton, Will Poulter, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Mendoza himself. The film also stars Kit Connor, probably best known for his role on the teen drama “Heartstopper.”
“Warfare” represents a very different turn for Connor, as it does for many of its young stars. Ahead of the film’s release, Rough Draft Atlanta spoke to Mendoza and Connor about the making of the film. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ray, I wanted to start with you. I’d love to hear a little bit more about the scripting process. What was it like for you getting everybody’s recollections of the this event, and then melding it into one story?
Ray Mendoza: It was an emotional roller coaster. We didn’t talk about feelings – you know, we were young, we’re experiencing chaotic or traumatic events everyday. You kind of learn to compartmentalize those things, and just keep shoving them down, because it’s the only way to really function in that kind of environment. Years later, Alex [Garland] and I decided we were going to do this together. There’s a little bit of trust that needs to be there. I’ve never been a super expressive guy, and so I was going to have to do that, and so were my friends. We all knew the event existed, but we were going to have to talk about something we never talked about – let alone just me to somebody else, but amongst each other.
Each part of this mission, or this day, we each have our own moment of time that resonates with us, whether it pulls up regrets, or failures, or whatever. So interviewing all my friends again 20 years later, not only did it spark memories that I’d just forgotten because of time, and the issues with memories – eventually, we figured that all out – but each guy, they were talking about things that I wasn’t aware of. With Tommy, Kit [Connor]’s character … there are regrets that he has. Not that he’s a bad operator – we just, a lot of us, depending on what part of the day, altered a little bit. Some people continue to spiral down. Some people will bounce back.
There’s a scene where D’Pharaoh [Woon-A-Tai, playing Ray in the film] comes in, and he’s like, “Tommy, where the f*ck are you? I need your help.” And there’s so much confusion … like, I didn’t know where anybody was either. I thought there were guys still out there. But I think [Tommy’s] regret was, I should have been out there for you guys. I should have known that you guys were inside the building with me, and that bothers me to this day. You could see he was getting a little emotional. It’s the same thing with some of the other guys, when they talk about regrets, they start to get emotional. Years later, as old men. That hurts me to watch my friends get that emotional about those things, knowing that they’ve been carrying that emotion that long, and never had the opportunity to express it. And having to go through that over and over with them.
It’s not pleasant to go through, but later we talk about how it is therapeutic, and it wasn’t as hard as they probably thought it was going to be. You know, we’re thankful we all did it.
Kit, you’ve mentioned that you had the opportunity to speak with the person your character is based on. What came out of those conversations that helped you ground this character? There’s not a ton of time for character development, given what’s going on.
Kit Connor: I kind of got two different sides of the character, you know? I think I was able to get a certain side from him, and then I was able to get another perception from the other men who were there, including Ray himself. What I learned from him was, I suppose, his mindset at the time. It was his first deployment, his first platoon. At that point, he kind of felt like they were invincible. I believe it was – you [Ray] can correct me on this – but I think it was the week before, that month at least, there had been a firefight where one guy had caught a bullet under his chest plate, and it went through one pec. That was really … the closest they had come, and yet there was no question that he was going to be okay. Apparently, he was back out in the field very, very quickly afterwards. So this was the first time that he felt like there was really a risk of not getting out of there, and someone getting really, seriously hurt or killed. I think his mindset was just fueled by that confusion, and obviously he was dealing with concussion and shell shock.
One of the things that I learned from the guys was that he was kind of a bit of a – he was the kid of the group, you know? They took the mick out of him a little bit, and he always had a bit of a goofy grin on. He was just kind of a bit of a joker. I suppose that was an aspect that I didn’t really get from him when I met him, and I don’t think it was there originally in the script. But then, through talking to Ray and through talking to some other guys, that’s what we added and discovered about him throughout the process.
I wanted to touch on casting just a little bit. Something that struck me – Kit, you’ve talked about your character being the youngest one, but a lot of these actors are from teen dramas, or at least that’s where they really popped off. Noah Centineo, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn. I found that to be a very effective casting decision, because regardless of everyone’s real ages, the audience associates them with youth. Was that something that was consciously going through your head?
Mendoza: There are a lot of variables when it comes to casting. Obviously, there’s the marketability components. But for me, [it’s] definitely the first thing you identified, which is the youth. Often, when I see war movies, they use somebody probably who’s a little bit older, because they’re established. That was a huge thing for me, was I wanted them to very, very much come off young, innocent – pure souls, if you will. I knew we needed the right kind of mindset-type people, meaning there were going to be really long days, really hard work, a lot of training, probably not a lot of time to go back to your trailer. The way we were going to shoot it, we were going to do really quick setups, quick turn-around times. It was kind of a 360 world, 360 lit, contained set piece, so to speak. So those turn-arounds were fast. I’m sure [Kit] remembers – in one minute, we were ready to go, versus having to remove all the lights and switch it, which takes 30-45 minutes sometimes. It was just fast paced, and so we had to make sure that we had the right mindsets for that, because we weren’t going to have time for any sort of extracurricular activities in between those.
We did some interviews. Alex did some on his own with Kit … When I saw the interview with Alex, and the pictures, I knew. He was very physically fit. Alex was like, this is the guy. That was one of the more important roles for me, was Tommy. Because he was a new guy. He’s like a little brother to me, and he was going to be that emotional spine. Whenever we checked in with him, he was going to dictate what the tone was, what people were feeling.
I’m glad you touched on the physicality. I thought all of the guys, you included Kit, really embodied that physical presence that military guys tend to have. You’ve talked about the boot camp that you all had to do before filming, but I wondered if you could talk about finding that physicality, particularly carrying all that gear – how did you go about physically embodying someone like that?
Connor: As Ray said, Alex was the person I met before I got the role. Alex essentially offered me the role, but also kind of told me not to take it, in a sense. He sort of said, you’re playing a gunner, and it’s going to be really physically, a big ask. It’s going to be a real hard job, in a lot of ways, especially for an actor, you know? Most acting jobs you do, you’re not actually likely to do much real heavy lifting. That was something that I knew off the bat. I obviously started training, and eating very heavily and trying to ensure, not even really for the physical aspect, or for the character, but purely so that I would be fit enough to do the job. I think that was a big thing for me. The bootcamp, we spent a lot of time on weapons training and tactical stuff, but we also did spend a fair bit of timing, both with Ray and without Ray, trying to stay strong and stay fit enough to not only be able to carry the weight and do all that stuff, but also to be able to do it for the whole day.
Ray is very experienced in training gunners, and he trained myself and a couple of the other guys to be able to handle the Mark 48 as efficiently and authentically as possible. I wanted to make sure that when I was reloading that weapon, I was believable, and that when I was carrying it or just holding it in my hand or anything, that it felt like that weapon was sort of a part of me, in a way, and that I was incredibly efficient. Everyone said that my character was an incredibly skilled marksman, and a skilled operator, and could use that gun better than most.
Ray, I was reading an interview with you recently where you were talking about having trouble finding the language to express yourself after getting out of the military, and then later coming to filmmaking. I’m curious, what is it about filmmaking and directing that pulled you towards it as a mode of expression for what it was you were going through or feeling at the time?
Mendoza: I’ve worked on a lot of films, commercials, and TV … A lot of my experiences are going to go into these movies. Instead of writing a book, it’s like all these films are a cryptic way of telling all my little stories. There are some projects that have been a part of where they’re just a little bit more on the drama side, where I can talk about the feelings of it, like what the show or movie is.
But for this one, each guy experienced his own challenge, if you will. Mine was being concussed and having a lot of things on the day, and regrets that I have. I was a communicator, there were a lot of mistakes that I made. Then you start to question yourself, like, oh man – should I have trained harder, should I have practiced a specific skill set longer? There are other guys in the movie that come off as completely locked off, and non-functional. I wanted to show all the different paths, all the different responses, whether it’s being concussed, trying to push your body to make a decision, or confused and then gaining situational awareness coming back, or being afraid and then powering your way through courage. Taking over leadership, giving up leadership, which is a lack of ego for the better of the team. Being somebody who is a new leader coming into a chaotic [situation]. So all these characters represent … these different states of combat. There’s a lot more, it’s a lot more complex. But they all represent that. So for each guy who had to talk about that, I think it’s just naturally therapeutic, because you’re having to admit your weaknesses that you can grow from.
