Found this on Wild Bill's site and thought it was worth a read. This is an article by Robert W Butler.
Actors Learn Pretend War Can Be Hell Too
Going to war can profoundly change a man.
But just pretending to go to war can change a man, too.
That, at least, has been the experience of the young actors who appear in Band of Brothers, the HBO World War II miniseries produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg that depicts the exploits of the men of Easy Company of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
"I don't know if it can ever get better than this," said actor Michael Cudlitz (who plays Sgt. "Bull" Randleman). "As an actor you hope you'll be allowed to do something that matters, something that will last. Truth is, I'll probably never do more important work as an actor."
Frank John Hughes, who plays Sgt. William Guarnere, said, "Tom Hanks told me, `Frank, your life will change in ways you cannot imagine.' That was an understatement."
If Band of Brothers is among the most realistic re-creations of war caught on film, it's because of the contributions of the men who were really there. The series is based on the recollections of the veterans themselves, as recorded by historian Stephen Ambrose in his 1992 book. But during the two-year production schedule the miniseries' writers, directors and actors were in regular contact with the former soldiers.
While filming in England, Hughes racked up a huge phone bill calling the veteran he portrays in the film -- Bill Guarnere of South Philadelphia.
"I mean three hours a day, seven days a week," Hughes said. "We talked about the business of soldiering, the responsibilities of a staff sergeant, right on through to the details of what an individual soldier does during combat."
"One of the really satisfying things about this project was that everyone -- from the producers down to the makeup people -- wanted to get it right," Cudlitz said. "It wasn't unusual for things to be changed right on the set because of something you'd found out the night before talking to your veteran. You'd go talk to the director and the producer, and tell them, `Bull says it didn't happen like that' -- and they'd change it."
All of this attention to detail wasn't lost on Guarnere, who lost a leg in Belgium. He recalled visiting the set near Hatfield, England, where a town was built on 12 acres and designed so that when filmed from different angles it represented 11 different European villages.
"They walked us through the set and at different places they'd stop and ask, `Where are we now?' And looking around, I immediately knew. It was Carentan, France, or Belgium or Holland. I could identify each place just by walking through. That's how believable everything was."
Band of Brothers sticks so closely to the facts, Guarnere said, that his character is repeatedly referred to by one of his Army nicknames: Gonorrhea.
"The dirty rats, they even put that in," Guarnere said, feigning outrage. "No, actually it's fine with me. It's the truth, anyway."
Mining the past
Guarnere is usually a tough, wisecracking sort of guy. Like many veterans, he returned home and revealed little about his wartime experiences. It was something these fighting men wanted to put behind them.
But when he finally saw Band of Brothers, including a sequence in which an explosion shears off his leg, it was almost too much for him.
"I cried," he said. "I cried a lot."
Guarnere and other veterans of the war now talk about their experiences after years of keeping quiet. "A lot of acquaintances didn't even know I was in the war," he said. "It seems like 99 percent of us never talked about it."
That's changed. Thanks to the work of historians like Ambrose and the film Saving Private Ryan, these vets are being celebrated and are sharing their experiences. In turn, they're being hailed as heroes.
When Guarnere and his Easy Company pal "Babe" Heffron visited the Brothers set, Hughes recalled, "It was like a couple of rock stars had dropped by. All production stopped. Everybody came out and circled them. We all wanted to touch these guys who had actually lived through this experience.
"It was such an honor to portray this guy. You can talk to other men of Easy Company who have hundreds of stories about Bill standing up under fire and saying, `C'mon, these Krauts can't shoot straight!' No wonder they called him `Wild Bill.'
"The most daunting task any actor will face is to portray a living hero. I've been handed something precious -- a living hero's legacy (will) be brought to millions of people through me."
Told of Hughes' praise, Guarnere chuckled.
"I'm not a hero," he said. "I'm just a survivor. It took us all to win that war."
Brothers, indeed
In a curious way, the experiences of the actors reflects that of the real-life veterans.
"We had to become a band of brothers," Hughes said of the cast.
"The boot camp experience we went through was amazing in forging that. You were suffering hypothermia, bleeding feet, hadn't eaten for two days. You've never been in that position with your friends or family, so it creates an incredible bond with your fellow actors."
Neal McDonough (who plays Buck Compton) said they've been told that being in Band of Brothers will boost their careers.
"But that's just gravy," McDonough said. "The great stuff is the lasting friendships that have developed over the last two years. Now, when one of us gets married, half the cast shows up...
"We were together for 16 hours a day for 12 months, basically living like soldiers. After the show was over and the war was done, it was good to go stateside and hang out with your friends. But after a couple of weeks of civilian life you'd wonder, `Where's so and so?'
"We're always getting together to sit around having a beer, talking about the war. That's what we call it. Not `the show' or `the film.' We call the experience `the war.' We even call each other by our characters' names. I'm not Neal any more. I'm Buck. I'll always be Buck to these guys."
It's more than an affectation, McDonough said. Being in Band of Brothers changed him and his fellow actors on a very deep level. It was, he said, "the best acting experience -- or maybe the best experience of any kind -- that we'll ever be a part of."
To reach Robert W. Butler, movie editor, call (816) 234-4760 or send e-mail to bbutler@kcstar.com
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