Topics covered include: Charles connecting with his dad through his role in Warfare, total immersion, knowing your castmates' meal requests by heart (Noah Centineo: 3 burger patties), sage advice from Alex Garland to “never say yes to anything before you read it,” pinch me moments, impersonating Will's American accent, Charles working with fellow Garland alum Cailee Spaeny on the newest season of Beef, feeling out of continuity with your own life, playing many rounds of Mafia after hours, wild peacocks, Will having an absolute blast with Jenna and Richard E. Grant on set of Death of a Unicorn, Michael Gandolfini as the worlds best storyteller, and Warfare as the most transformative and meaningful experience of their lives.
Will Poulter: Hi, I'm Will Poulter.
Charles Melton: And I'm Charles Melton, and this is the A24 podcast-
Will Poulter: Podcast!
Charles Melton: You fuck.
Will Poulter: Sorry, dude. Dive right in.
Charles Melton: Dive right in.
Will Poulter: The A24 podcast.
Charles Melton: Pretty cool.
Will Poulter: Really cool, man.
Charles Melton: It's so cool to be a part of a film for one.
Will Poulter: Yes.
Charles Melton: And then A24 is so cool.
Will Poulter: I know, man.
Charles Melton: Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza.
Will Poulter: Dude, that's nuts, right?
Charles Melton: All you guys, that's pretty incredible.
Will Poulter: It's been a pretty kind of dreamy combination of things. I was talking to someone about how impressive I think it is that it was co-directed because, and I was able to say this I hope in a way where they were able to receive it in the spirit in which I said it, which was I wasn't sure how two such strong personalities would fare when it came to co-directing and it required both of them to practice this amazing level of self-awareness, and humility, and deference to each other over different things and watching that happen. And then a massive group of guys as well you just wonder, it's a lot of testosterone, it's a lot of personalities and it's kind of amazing how it all came together.
Charles Melton: It felt very just like, yeah, both Alex, very selfless.
Will Poulter: Yes.
Charles Melton: You know, there's different kinds of egos but there's no ego that got in the way just like this whole story and even with all of us guys and everything and what we did, it kind of felt like we were all on ground zero.
Will Poulter: Yeah, man.
Charles Melton: Right?
Will Poulter: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
Charles Melton: And we showed up and did a lot of different things that kind of... The methodology that informed our whole process.
Will Poulter: Yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: I've never done a play before or theater or anything-
Will Poulter: Neither.
Charles Melton: ...But hearing Alex talk about it and just kind of like what our experience was where there's no shot list and we're shooting like 20 minute long takes.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: You know, people from the theater are probably like, "Twenty minutes? That's nothing." But over, and over, and over again.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: It's just incredible how it all-
Will Poulter: Yeah, it was unconventional in so many ways.
Charles Melton: Right.
Will Poulter: And also the thing that I really loved about the process is like where possible and to a large degree, didn't really feel like you were actors or going about it in the kind of traditional way of like spending time in your trailer and spending time apart from the ensemble. We were all together kind of at all times, never really left the environment that we shot in.
Charles Melton: No.
Will Poulter: And it operated like a unit.
Charles Melton: And it formed everything.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: It never felt like we were acting, it was impossible. Like, 30 seconds goes by, a minute goes by and cameras are going on for 15 more minutes, there's no acting, it's like existing, right? The immersion, it was pretty amazing. It was kind of cool though with all of us guys our roles were, we were OIC.
Will Poulter: Yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: Kind of like the chain of command and like kind of how Ray created leadership through the bootcamp and how we learned so many things. All the quotes that we would write every day. That you would write every day, really leaning on each other.
Will Poulter: I caught some heat for some of those, some of those were very corny I think.
Charles Melton: Really?
Will Poulter: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. D'Pharaoh was like, "What are we graduating?"
Charles Melton: Fall down six times you get back up-
Will Poulter: Exactly.
Charles Melton: Yeah, Will wrote that one.
Will Poulter: Tired as hell, googling inspirational quotes first thing in the morning.
Charles Melton: I'll never forget when we got everyone watches, because you kept the voice and everything a part of the process, like the instrument, you kept the instrument warm by always speaking in the American accent. Which is so incredible and I really respect that amongst other things. But I'll never forget: "All right gentlemen, it is 05:42. Have breakfast done by 06:30. We're meeting at base camp. Get through the works, hair and makeup by 06:45, and get rigged up and we will leave here at 07:00 for the marquee to be there at 07:15 and then to arrive to block at 07:30." "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir."
Will Poulter: That is so funny.
Charles Melton: But you really led man, and you know I learned a lot. You led us, you led me, and then we all led each other. It's funny when we were kind of setting the tone in a way based off of our roles and the responsibility that Ray gave us, it's funny and I remember telling somebody, Will would always be the last one to eat, always the last one to eat. He'd be the first one at the food truck for breakfast. We'd take turns giving orders. Sometimes you'd be like, "Top, can you get this?" And I'm like, "Fuck, all right. Let me get my voice." Because we have to be direct and there's a certain kind of semantics and like the terminology is very alien. But you would always be the last one, you'd let everyone go eat before you and you'd be the last one. And I was like, "Fuck, Will's doing this and I'm OIC as well so I got to fucking wait too."
Will Poulter: No dude, you took on your role, your leadership role with so much grace. I learned a lot watching how you played your part in respect of your responsibility to the guys. You, me, and Joe Quinn I guess, as the sort of officers in charge and the kind of the leadership group. I think the tricky thing for us without speaking for anyone, but at least for me it was like we were all equal through the process and in many respects the training was a great equalizer because it didn't matter like how old any of the guys were or what their experience level was like-
Charles Melton: What projects they've done.
Will Poulter: Exactly.
Charles Melton: What number on the call sheet.
Will Poulter: Exactly. We were given a really great honor and responsibility in our roles as officers in charge and representing the real-life people that we represent. What was really cool was to see how all the guys sort of cast aside ego and just committed wholeheartedly to the hierarchy, and the structure of things, and the protocol. And I think trust and certainly like genuine love and affection developed over the natural course of the bootcamp and the shooting process and that was really, really cool to see. And as you said, it just ended up informing everything that we did going forward and I'm so glad we went about it that way.
I was going to take it back and ask you how Warfare first landed on your desk so to speak and what your initial thoughts were because obviously you have a deep personal connection to the story as well.
Charles Melton: Right. Well, as you know, and for anyone listening, my dad was in the army for 24 years, you know that. I think the beautiful thing that we get to do with this medium with being actors is there's reasons for doing a job and sometimes I'd like to have most of those reasons for every job be like some sort of personal reason for me, and it was to get closer to my dad, to understand my dad.
Will Poulter: Damn, man.
Charles Melton: Right? So in order to get the process of understanding my dad better it also taught me. I'm an actor, did not experience anything that he experienced, but just more so in a way understanding the maybe... Again, we have no idea what it's like, we're just actors, but it just brought me closer to my dad and-
Will Poulter: Like understanding him from a psychological perspective almost?
Charles Melton: Maybe. It's always difficult for the veteran community and like we've talked about this, difficult for the veteran community to speak about certain things that have happened, it's indescribable. Part of Ray doing this for Elliott is so that he can see it, instead of just reading transcripts of a recollection of 10 different guys or 15 different guys from the operation, he could actually see it and experience it.
And yeah, I think growing up those four years, my dad was away, deployed. I'm just still a kid growing up I don't know what's happening or the idea, not that I know what's happening. But I think doing this whole film with all of you guys and with Alex and Ray just brought me closer to maybe not the experience but the idea like maybe... You know what I mean?
Will Poulter: Yeah, and helping you understand a little bit.
Charles Melton: Yeah, just from military tactics to protocol, to the brotherhood, to the camaraderie, to humility. I just learned so many different things throughout the process and it just helped me understand my dad better.
Will Poulter: That's awesome.
Charles Melton: Yeah. I remember meeting with Alex and Ray, we got dinner. If I knew Alex and Ray better then I would have not went to the place we went to dinner at instead of-
Will Poulter: Why? What was it?
Charles Melton: I don't know. It was like some place in Beverly Hills. I was like, "Did you guys pick this place?" They were like, "No, did you pick this place?" I was like, "No, this is the last place I wanted to be."
Will Poulter: They'd be cool with like a slice of pizza and a beer-
Charles Melton: Yeah, the steak was like a hundred bucks. I was like, "What? What is this?" I couldn't pronounce half the things. We met and it was so funny. I remember Ray shared the story with me and then they told me their vision and talked about the intensity of this project and I was just like, "I'm in. I'm already in." Alex was like... I'm not going to do it as Alex. I'm not going to do it. But he goes, "Charles piece of advice. Never say yes to anything before you read it."
Will Poulter: Yes, I remember you telling me that.
Charles Melton: You could imagine him saying that.
Will Poulter: Oh my God. Yeah.
Charles Melton: And I was like, "No, I know but I know I'm going to do it." I just felt it. It was just instinctual.
Will Poulter: You had that-
Charles Melton: I just... Conviction.
Will Poulter: Yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: I just knew and next thing I know, yeah, with you guys. Was the process... Because you met with Alex when he-
Will Poulter: Yeah, I met with Alex actually separately from Ray initially.
Charles Melton: Yeah.
Will Poulter: And it's funny, man, on paper it was a yes. It was like one of those things where Alex Garland's next A24 movie. I was like, "Well, yeah, obviously I'm going to want to do that."
Charles Melton: Right.
Will Poulter: And then to be honest, when he told me that it was a war film, and I've told you this, but my heart sank a little bit. The reason being, and I should have known better because it's Alex Garland and it's A24, I should have known better. But my heart sank because I thought, "There are so many films that depict war that run the risk or actively glorify it or romanticize it and we don't need another film that does that."
And one of the things that Alex said to me very early on that I latched onto was this idea that he wanted to challenge the Hollywood grammar in how war films are made and tell a story without Hollywood grammar. That is to say: remove the fictionalization, not try and glorify it. Create something that is a very literal re-creation of the events so that you can see the horrifying consequences of war and how that impacts everyone.
And when he said that, I really lent in and I was really excited. And I returned to that initial state of excitement. And bizarre having Alex Garland, a filmmaker I've admired for so long, literally, quite literally on my bucket list of directors I want to work with. And then offering me the role. I was like, "This is nuts." People talk about pinch me moments. That was one of them. And it was just, it was a real honor and a privilege to be part of something that really broke with convention and was so different to anything that I think certainly I've ever done or ever really has been done. That's a really rare opportunity for anyone. It's like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So that was really cool.
And one thing I did know going into it, which I knew would be really enjoyable is that as a group of guys we were going to get incredibly close. And me and you started on the journey earliest because we met in...
Charles Melton: Coronado.
Will Poulter: Yeah. San Diego meeting the two gentlemen that we represent. And their identities are protected for obvious reasons. And we embarked on the journey early, early on. And it was funny meeting you because at that point we didn't know each other at all. We'd been in the same room once. We didn't know each other at all. But I knew that by way of this process, of this four-week bootcamp and five-week shoot, whatever it was, we were going to end up incredibly close.
Charles Melton: Right. In love.
Will Poulter: And in love, in love as it happens. And that's such a cool thing. That's such a beautiful aspect of this process as well that as a group of guys, we've all got so close, and met some amazing personalities through the process.
Charles Melton: You know what's interesting is someone that was asking me about this process, "You guys got so close, you guys got tattoos. You guys-”
Will Poulter: And lived with each other as well.
Charles Melton: Yeah. And I was just, basically the way the person was asking these questions was, "You did all these things in order to connect." And I was like, "We didn't get the tattoo to connect. We didn't eat to connect, we just connected."
Will Poulter: And we wanted all those things.
Charles Melton: And we wanted all those things. And yeah, it was just interesting because I don't think I'll ever experience what we experienced through this process. It's hard to imagine that I’ll ever experience something like that as far as just like- I mean we all talk every day, we love each other. And it's crazy too I don't think people understand the extent where, when Elliott came to the Pendley Manor in-
Will Poulter: Tring. Yeah, yeah.
Charles Melton: Tring. People don't know- I mean I don't know if we can talk about it but-
Will Poulter: Elliott coming to visit? Yeah.
Charles Melton: Yeah. Coming to visit. It's like we're all one body. We move together. If Ray needed to take care of somebody, we're all taking care of that person.
Will Poulter: Yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: If one person needed something, we all needed it. We all found out how to get it.
Will Poulter: It was cool seeing just the individual growth in all of the guys through the process. It made better people out of everyone who went through that training in terms of being accountable, being a teammate before you are an individual. It made everyone I think more selfless.
Charles Melton: Right. You could probably, all 13 of us could give each other's meal requests.
Will Poulter: Haha. Meal order. Yeah.
Charles Melton: Yeah, meal order because it was always one person taking the reins and just being like, "This is what... Yeah, guys we're going to eat in this room at this time. What do you want? Send your orders." And then that person, most of the time you, or whoever, Finn, whatever, would go to the restaurant and get the order. So we could-
Will Poulter: Shout out to the staff in that hotel who just were incredibly accommodating of 13 very hungry boys every day. I mean Noah ate three burger patties every night, which was pretty extraordinary to watch, without deviation. I don't think he ever changed his order. It was wild to watch that.
Charles Melton: Yeah, those fries. Those fries are so good.
Will Poulter: Good fries! Good fries in Tring. Yeah. And I think so much of what you see on screen is a direct result of the process. And I was really grateful that Alex and Ray and production facilitated that for us and it made it really special. It made everything feel a bit more authentic. And I think broadly what that means is that the film is more authentic, it is more realistic.
And my hope is it's received in the spirit in which we made it, which was to just make something that reflects the absolute reality of that situation. So that whatever your political stance or whatever your perspective is on war, it's like at least there's something that you can view that accurately represents what that experience can be and what the consequences can look like. As opposed to us rooting it in something that maybe tries to make it look cool or entertaining.
Ray said it himself, it's like, "If you watch this film and you think, 'That looks like a good time,' and you want to sign up for it, it's like there's probably something wrong with you from a psychological perspective." Do you know what I mean?
Charles Melton: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will Poulter: This is just one of many stories. He's like, "But understand that this can be the consequences of what it is to serve and go to war." And he's not saying, "Don't," but he's saying, "Be prepared to reckon with the...
Charles Melton: Consequences.
Will Poulter: The consequences.
Charles Melton: Yeah. Because this isn't just some idea, this is a telling.
Will Poulter: Exactly.
Charles Melton: That's the most authentic and truest form.
Will Poulter: On a totally different note, but keeping it A24, you're working on Beef at the moment.
Charles Melton: Yes.
Will Poulter: I know you can't say all too much, but how fun is it for you to go from something like Warfare and then do something on the TV side that is so different and from an acting perspective I mentioned comes with a whole host of other sort of challenges and a different process as well?
Charles Melton: Right, right, right. It's definitely lighter in ways and it's been so much fun. I can't say too much but I mean it's been so much- I mean everyone's great from Sonny is brilliant and he's directing. Jake Schreier is directing and then just having Cailee is so awesome.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: It's like we're all connected because she worked with Alex on Civil War.
Will Poulter: Of course.
Charles Melton: We're working on Beef and she plays my fiancé. And we're really close. And so that's just- I feel like she would have been great if she was in Warfare with us.
Will Poulter: Oh, awesome. Yeah.
Charles Melton: She would've-
Will Poulter: Bought into the process.
Charles Melton: ...Bought into the process immersed. She has my back, I have her back. And Carrie and Oscar are incredible.
Will Poulter: Awesome.
Charles Melton: It's been really very different.
Will Poulter: Yes.
Charles Melton: I haven't quite... I've been very fortunate to experience a different journey, a different process with each thing. From all the things I've done and before our film, May December. And then to all different kinds of processes with all visionaries-
Will Poulter: Yeah, man.
Charles Melton: ...Tours and it's like, it's cool. Yeah, it's very different. I think it's going to be fun. It's-
Will Poulter: That's the cool thing where no one job is the same and so the processes are all different and the experiences are all like-
Charles Melton: And then TV is always bouncing back. We'll bounce to the end and then-
Will Poulter: Is that trippy? How do you feel? Because we obviously shot Warfare-
Charles Melton: In order.
Will Poulter: ...Continuously.
Charles Melton: Yeah.
Will Poulter: Yeah. And that's a treat. That's not always-
Charles Melton: That's amazing.
Will Poulter: Alex I think always tries to do that. And I think I don't know if Ray is going to do that going forward, but how do you find the challenge of shooting out of continuity?
Charles Melton: Yeah, it's confusing sometimes.
Will Poulter: I struggle, man.
Charles Melton: Yeah. You got to remind yourself of what part of this journey is this role in, this guy in. Where is he? And then, but then also it's kind of good.
Will Poulter: Keeps you on your toes a bit?
Charles Melton: Keeps you on your toes and you're like, "Oh, because I've experienced the end, now I know how maybe- there's a clearer picture of how I'm going to start the beginning.” Or maybe I'm just being an optimist.
Will Poulter: Yeah, interesting. No, yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: You know?
Will Poulter: That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
Charles Melton: Because I'm like, oh, this is where I've ended.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: This is the middle.
Will Poulter: Yeah.
Charles Melton: Oh, now this can be the beginning. But there are-
Will Poulter: Yeah. There's also something about that expression, truth is stranger than fiction. And I think about this often with acting where it's like often I feel out of continuity in my own life. I feel like Wednesday does not feel like Wednesday.
Charles Melton: Right right.
Will Poulter: Do you know what I mean?
Charles Melton: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will Poulter: And so actually in a way, sometimes I feel like I'm living an experience that feels like I'm out of continuity. And so to not fight that on set or whatever and actually lean into it sometimes and be-
Charles Melton: A hundred percent, it's very human.
Will Poulter: Yeah, it's very human.
Charles Melton: Yeah, it's very... Yeah.
Will Poulter: It's more real. So sometimes I do feel that way about it. Same time, I haven't done a lot of TV, but I can imagine if you're doing episode 10 in the morning and then in the afternoon you're going back to episode five prior to that or whatever, that must have challenges.
Charles Melton: I guess I've learned, or I try to surrender to the process and everything. There's a lot of surrendering to the process of, like you said, it's not like the beginning of this guy is happy, and then the middle is he's sad and the end he's angry. It's like, no, that's not real life. It fluctuates like that. Yeah, there's a lot of surrender through this process and every process. But yeah, TV is great. It's great.
Will Poulter: I can't wait to see him, man. I'm so excited about it.
Charles Melton: And now speaking about you, you've been doing this for a long time.
Will Poulter: I guess so. I mean-
Charles Melton: I remember, well, first off I've already told you this, I was nervous and excited to work with you.
Will Poulter: Dude. I felt the same about you.
Charles Melton: I was just like, “Oh man, that's Will Poulter.”
Will Poulter: Oh, fucking hell.
Charles Melton: Oh, fuck. Shit.
Will Poulter: Didn't last long though. Didn't last-
Charles Melton: I was like, "I hope he likes me…Did he see my movie? I don't know."
Will Poulter: Oh, yeah, of course I did!
Charles Melton: It's amazing. I’ve followed you... Literally, the first thing I saw you in was We're the Millers.
Will Poulter: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Charles Melton: Yeah. And just to see how you've just progressed to doing Kathryn Bigelow's movie and then just- you have two movies coming out pretty close, you have Death of a Unicorn.
Will Poulter: Yeah that’s A24..
Charles Melton: How was that?
Will Poulter: Dude, it's really fun. I've been nervous on the press because we all got on really well as a cast and we had so much fun.
But I've been very conscious, and I've said this to my Death of a Unicorn castmates, I'm like, this is the way I put it. Death of a Unicorn for just a pure, like fun and silly comedy perspective, right? It's the best experience I've ever had. But my experience on Warfare with all you guys was the most transformative, meaningful experience I've ever had with a cast. So I never wanted to get that twisted.
Charles Melton: Right, right, right.
Will Poulter: On saying how much fun I had on Death of a Unicorn. I never wanted any of our guys to be like, hold on a minute. Did you not have fun on our thing? I thought we were... I thought we were like a family. But Death of a Unicorn was such a laugh, man. And I did it before Warfare. They just happened to be coming out kind of around the same time. But like you said, it's so fun to do something different and that comes with a host of other challenges and kind of immerses you into a different process.
And yeah, bro, like you said, when you get to work with people you really admire, like Paul Rudd is such a blast to work with. He's so fun. He's all about play and enjoying yourself. Jenna's amazing. Been a fan of Jenna for a while. I've never seen her not be great. And I grew up watching Richard E. Grant, and it's just so many incredible people in it. Téa Leoni was my north star on that film, my kind of on-set mom as well as bestie. So we just had a blast. It was really a really fun time. But as far as transformative personality shaping experiences, nothing comes close to Warfare. And I don't think I'm insulting them by saying that.
Charles Melton: No. Right, right, right.
Will Poulter: Also, there's like 12 lads I have to answer to if I say anything bad about Warfare. That's a scary prospect.
Charles Melton: Starting with me.
Will Poulter: Start with you right now.
Charles Melton: What'd you say, bro? Why'd you say that?
Will Poulter: Exactly.
Charles Melton: You've done so many different genres. And again, for the sake of it not being the other films that I've seen or not being A24, so I'm not going to even mention that, but if anyone's followed your work, they can see just, you're just shape shifting so much. And so what's your thought process when it comes to choosing the next thing? Are you kind of like, I need to relax on this, or is it the director? Is it the story? Is it the money?
Will Poulter: Yeah. No, listen. I appreciate you paying me that compliment about doing lots of different things because that's what you do, man, and you know how much I love your work, and also how much I respect your process and how you go about it. You make a really good point. The first thing is that you're really grateful to be working as an actor. You just have to remind yourself of that first and foremost. I've had so much good luck and fortune come my way. And the reality is, for the vast majority of people, a certain amount of good luck has to break your way and I'm very aware of that.
I'm very aware of the fact that some of the best actors are walking around working other jobs right now outside of acting. So there's that firstly. And then I think the thing that I'm attached to more and more is the social application of the work and how it's going to change people's perspective, stimulate discussion. I'm really hoping Warfare contributes to the conversation around war and the concepts of conflict and whatnot in a way that hasn't been discussed before. And then also with something like Death of a Unicorn, I hope it offers people a bit of a laugh and a moment of escapism from what is a difficult moment in many respects.
Charles Melton: Yeah. Sorry to cut you off.
Will Poulter: No.
Charles Melton: It's going to be insane watching because I've only seen the trailer of Death of a Unicorn. I want to see it. But seeing you in that compared to what we did and what we shot, just a complete... Insane. It's insane.
Will Poulter: But with Beef. Ditto with you, you know.
Charles Melton: And I don't know if you remember this. I remember. You remember how Alex and Ray would give us 20 minutes to rehearse the scenes?
Will Poulter: Yeah. And then come back.
Charles Melton: And then come back within the blue dividers. I remember everyone was talking about when you guys were rehearsing the first part. Gandolfini told me this story, and I loved it. It was about you. It was because we were so in it. We were in the thick of it. And it was a huge responsibility. It was very emotional, the whole process. And you being OIC. You had kind of the role. You had to take charge of a lot of different things. And I just remember everyone just loving and being in awe of seeing your human frustration come out because you care so much. It's amazing to see someone care so much and just get so frustrated and go internally because you're like, oh, I get that guy. That's me. But Gandolfini-
Will Poulter: Who's the world's best storyteller, by the way.
Charles Melton: The best storyteller. He should tell this story because it's so beautiful and he's probably a lot more eloquent than I-
Will Poulter: No, no. I just mean-
Charles Melton: Blink twice if I should stop.
Will Poulter: Not at all. I'm not blinking, but he'd just regale us every night with amazing stories.
Charles Melton: Through the script and just…fuck. Through it, it was just so safe that we could just go through that and be upset and frustrated and try to figure it out because we had a responsibility, not just as actors, but to Ray, to Elliott, to Alex, to all the servicemen.
Will Poulter: Right, right, the pressure of that.
Charles Melton: But that was just amazing to see.
Will Poulter: It's interesting.
Charles Melton: I loved it.
Will Poulter: It's so funny.
Charles Melton: He's fiery…
Will Poulter: Yeah. I just had a little tantrum. I recognize that you are hard on yourself too, and it's a challenge, isn't it? Holding yourself to a standard that you want to meet, but also not being so hard on yourself that you become a saboteur or, you know what I mean? Give yourself a steeper climb than you need to make. Does that make sense? That's a challenge. I feel like we should maybe talk a little bit about the, just on Warfare, some of the anecdotal stuff. Because in a way, well, obviously we only represent a very small fraction of the cast, and it feels wrong not to talk about some of the guys on this because the experience, being as special as it was, is predicated on how special they are as humans. And it's really funny, the first time we all hung out, we're in this tearoom conservatory sort of thing at the back of this hotel-
Charles Melton: Peacocks running around.
Will Poulter: Peacocks running around everywhere, and you don't really know how 13 guys are going to get on with one another. And also shout to Heider and Nathan as well, who played the Iraqi Scouts, who are such great actors, such lovely guys and were a major part of the process as well. You don't know how everyone's going to gel and get on. And obviously we've spoken about how the formalities, the protocol, the chain of command informed things. But as serious as it was, and as intense as it was, we had so many laughs too.
Charles Melton: We had so many.
Will Poulter: It was so fun, man.
Charles Melton: Yeah, I know everyone was really intimidated to meet me when I showed up.
Will Poulter: Really? I was like all right.
Charles Melton:
What did he tell me? Everyone was really scared. Someone rolled out a red carpet for me. It was fucking chill.
Will Poulter: It was really interesting watching all those different personalities-
Charles Melton: I know.
Will Poulter: Come into contact with each other.
Charles Melton: I think that's the beautiful thing with humility. I feel like whatever personality you have, if you just have humility, and love is behind that humility, I think you can find love for anyone. We all were there like, we weren't here to add this to our resume or this.
Will Poulter: No, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was such a fun group all from different parts of the world and different experiences up to date.
Charles Melton: Remember one day, they gave us night vision goggles to take home.
Will Poulter: Yes, which was an insane decision to give our group night vision goggles to take home. Because naturally we just ran around the hotel with the night vision goggles on.
Charles Melton: And we sing happy birthday to Noah. Noah Centineo's birthday. Remember we were outside wearing our goggles and we were like, how the fuck does this work? We were blinding ourselves almost.
Will Poulter: Oh my God.
Charles Melton: We sang him happy birthday. You remember that?
Will Poulter: I do remember that. After every day we'd all eat together. We’d probably all work out together. We'd smoke cigarettes and drink Diet Cokes in the garden together. That was pretty much how every single day went. It was really interesting as well how, for the sake of balance in the social experience, we'd go from these really, really intense conversations and naturally really, really intense serious work, straight to the silliest, most ridiculous joking around. You can imagine. It was really fun to be able to do both at once.
Charles Melton: We played Mafia. That was fun.
Will Poulter: We played a lot of games of Mafia. You were the games master, right?
Charles Melton: Yeah.
Will Poulter: You would run that. Mafia was fun.
Charles Melton: I'll never forget. Do you remember when you, me, and Joe we were having a conversation, just like leadership, and Kit was walking towards us just so happy and jolly and I just shoved my hand on Kit and I looked at him and I was like, “No, not right now.”
Will Poulter: I don't even remember that.
Charles Melton: He was like-
Will Poulter: We were like, “No, this is a serious moment. We're not joking around.” He's like-
Charles Melton: No, yeah really. He was-
Will Poulter: There were so many bits that you had to constantly be on your toes. There was also a habit of, and the armors ended up stepping in, there was also a habit of stealing guys handguns off them. You constantly had to be- I got zip tied to a chair at one point without me knowing.
Charles Melton: You fell asleep.
Will Poulter: I fell asleep. Oh, when guys fell asleep, people would get photographs taken of them or they'd get messed with in some way.
Charles Melton: DP's got so many.
Will Poulter: D’Pharaoh was-
Charles Melton: Didn’t someone stack 10 books on his head while he was sleeping?
Will Poulter: Yeah. We stacked several different household items on his head when he was asleep. Michael Gandolfini is the greatest storyteller and one of the funniest human beings.
Charles Melton: He's the best.
Will Poulter: Of all time. TJ and Evan could actually both legitimately be team guys and ram point on weapons handling, when Ray wasn't directly involved, which was amazing.
Charles Melton: Cosmo is so funny.
Will Poulter: Cosmo is-
Charles Melton: The biggest sweetheart
Will Poulter: Beating heart of our group. Amazing to see how the process took hold of him as well. He's surrendered to the idea of being a team guy. And I think he'll admit himself he started off as a lone wolf and then just became the beating heart of our group. Noah wore the same outfit-
Charles Melton: Every day.
Will Poulter: For two months. For a man as handsome and as fashionable as I know him to be, it's hilarious that he just rocked basketball shorts and the same black hoodie and the same white t-shirt with holes in it, and slides for two months straight. I love him for it.
Charles Melton: And then Finn.
Will Poulter: Finn! You and Finn's relationship on screen is obviously like that- You guys were so great together.
Charles Melton: Finn's so sweet. He's so great.
Will Poulter: He's awesome. And Adain, a fellow Brit. Finn's from Ireland. A fellow Brit and did such an awesome job as the other Marine with Michael. He's so good in the movie and had the comms thing down in an amazing way. Watching him Wild Eagle base while they were two, four-
Charles Melton: Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty amazing.
Will Poulter: Unreal. Joe Quinn.
Charles Melton: Joe Quinn.
Will Poulter: Well, we touched on Joey earlier, but what an actor man. What a guy. Always spoke really well, I thought when we'd huddle up. Hide as a prankster. Still pranking us on the WhatsApp group and is amazing. Nathan gave one of the best performances I've ever seen. When we did a- Do you remember the exercise? We did the training exercise. We did one of our simulated missions. Nathan played a wounded soldier, it was like an Oscar goes to moment during this mission simulation as part of training to the point where I was like-
Charles Melton: That was fucking crazy.
Will Poulter: Dude, you've got to tone it down because we can't hear each other. Your screaming is so realistic.
Charles Melton: Did someone tell him to do that?
Will Poulter: I don't know!
Charles Melton: Remember when Cosmo were like, “Cosmo. Where's Ida?” He goes, “Well, I don't know.”
Will Poulter: “I left him.”
Charles Melton: “I left him. I saw him and I just left him.”...That was insane.
Will Poulter: That was insane. Also Kit, who by the way-
Charles Melton: Baby face.
Will Poulter: Baby face, was his nickname. Who looks physically identical to Tommy. His physicality was a perfect match. And also for me, Kit in this film did such an incredible job. He's also a reminder of the fact that, in a role where you don't necessarily have a ton of dialogue, he's so impactful.
Charles Melton: Dude, so impactful.
Will Poulter: He's so real in every moment. That guy's amazing.
Charles Melton: He's so wise. I can't believe he's 20!
Will Poulter: I know, it’s nuts.
Charles Melton: Or he just turned 21.
Will Poulter: And he's just turned 21, isn't he? Yeah. He's more mature than all of us. I think we covered all of the guys.
Charles Melton: I think so. We saved the best for last.
Will Poulter: We didn't leave anyone out, yeah. Baby face.
Charles Melton: Baby face.
Will Poulter: Baby face.
Charles Melton: Everyone's so incredible.
Will Poulter: Yeah. I'm super proud of the group.
Charles Melton: Me too.