W&W
Talk about your character "Gunny"
David Harbour: Ghani is a friend of Jason's Levin character. I think gunning might call him levon but Ghani is a guy who's been on several, you know, sort of teams with him and has served with him on various tours, so they're military buddies they're sort of brothers in arms. gunny functions in several different ways, but the biggest way that he func- tions that I think is a mirror to Gunny functions in several different ways, but the biggest way that he functions that I think is a mirror to Levon's limitations is that I think, in the scene, we talk about him wanting permission to do things, but I think also Denny's been a product of levon's failure to a certain degree. blindness he's blind because Levin wasn't able to save him from being hit with this thing, and I think he reminds him constantly of his sort of vulnerabil- ity and his limitations as a man.
I think that's part of the reason for the character there-to check him, to tell him that he's not immortal and that he's not perfect and that there is col- lateral damage to his actions.
Why did you want to be involved in this film?
David Harbour: I just really like Jason Statham movies, so I wanted to do one of those before I die, and then the other thing was I wanted to do an- other David Ayer movie because we've worked together in the past twice on a movie called end of watch with them, and I did a little bit in Suicide Squad as well, and Dave and I have known each other for years, and I think he's a really great writer/director and has a very specific point of view and a very specific deep flavor take on the world you know it's nice to dip into that.
How was It working with Jason Statham?
David Harbour: you know he's been very gracious it's always interest- ing to me, you know, big stars, and see what they're really like behind the curtain, and I think he's pretty
PHOTOGRAPHY: Emma McIntyre/Getty much as he appears he's seems pretty grounded and real and yet has a cer- tain vulnerability, which I find admi- rable for somebody who makes action movies.
I sort of think I was like, maybe that's the reason why we like watching Jason Statham movies, because he's just very human and very engaged in a way that I really like, and you know, he's really game to play around. I mean, we've been trying to decon- struct the scenes, and that's David's big thing, as he likes to go in and really pick him apart and see what's really important or what's vital to the story of the character we're going to reveal, and you know, Jason wants to get in there as well and wants to play around and dig around for some of the depths, and so that's been a lot of fun. I really enjoy being around him off camera, you know, and I enjoy working with him on camera.
How was it working with Director/ Co-writer David Ayer?
he's a real searcher, David, like I think he's really, um, searching always to try to deepen, and he's not precious, which I really like, but he really wants collaboration; he really wants the actors to bring things; he wants the prop guys to bring to the light. I mean, he really wants other people to enliven this world, um, you know, as I say that, it can sometimes be rare with writer-directors, but I re- ally like that, so it's always a bit of an adventure with him.
How did you prepare for this film?
David Harbour: it's an odd thing, like being an instrument in a band. I don't necessarily know that me understanding the meaning of the song makes me a better guitarist. I sort of feel like the chords that I have to play sometimes are based on story dynamics as opposed to the actual histories of something, and my relationship to a military situa- tion is not going to be a military guy's relationship to a military situation, so a lot of times I'm having to work with my own internal metaphors around stuff as opposed to actual content.
occasionally it's useful to have just the language of, like, it's been useful to have good military advisors on this to talk us through, you know, a