Will Poulter: [The watches] were G-Shocks. And basically it was Charles’s idea to put together a pack for all the guys. It was a really beautiful act of leadership from Charles to do that for the guys. I was just getting really pissed off with people being late. And I basically said to the guys one day at boot camp, I was like, “Listen.” I was like, “Charles was kind enough to arrange watches for you all. There’s now absolutely no excuse. So starting tomorrow if anyone comes up to me and asks me what the time is, I basically said, I’m going to tell you to F off.” And I meant it.
Melton: Will was like, “Okay, it’s 0600. We have to make sure you guys eat, get done by 0630, get into hair and makeup by 0645, be fully rigged at 0700. We’re all going to leave as OPs at 0715 and go to the marquee at 0730 and then we’re going to rehearse at 0800.” It was very precise.
Manning comms
The guys who played communications officers would keep up the lingo even off camera.
Woon-A-Tai: When we’re one set, me, Finn, Michael, Adain [Bradley]âwe would all be just talking to each other on the radios. And it was just a lot of fun. I mean, we would play around with it a little bit. We were bored a lot of the time, so we would just joke around with each other, do radio checks, just check up on each other. I think that it really bonded us together.
Gandolfini: It created this environment of Comms comes first. Good lord, we really struggled. And then we’d have to take our notes. But as we got there, youâre really like, Oh, I really am starting to get this and I’m starting to get the cadence to it. I know what they’re saying. “Interrogative: Do you want a Coke from crafty?” You just start to learn the language. And it wasn’t only the language, but it was the way in which there’s a musicality.
What happened in down time
The cast spent a lot of time together. Not only were they bunking in the same place, but Garland and Mendoza required everyone to come to set even when they weren’t on camera. So what did they do to pass the time? Shit talking, wrestling, and games of Mafia.
Joseph Quinn: Talking incomprehensible amounts of shit with each other. I think it was just stupid, stupid jokes for five weeks. Dumb bits. You get creative in those situations and there was a lot of laughter. There were a lot of funny men in this film, and so we were able to pass the time pretty effectively.
Woon-A-Tai: A bunch of us wrestled each other. I put Noah [Centineo] on his ass. He could back me up on that. But very healthy things, stuff that doesn’t matter. There were a lot of people who put other people on their ass. We didn’t go by the ranks and like, “Okay, you won. You go face me now.” We were just like, all right, Noah versus DP. All right, boom. Noah kicked my ass twice. I kicked his ass once. I say I win. You know what I mean?