Mandy Griffiths
In his career he’s faced a Sea of Monsters in “Percy Jackson”, mental illness in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, and God himself in “Noah”, now Logan Lerman is facing down Nazi Germany in the World War II film “Fury” directed by David Ayer and co-starring Brad Pitt, Shia La Beof, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal.
On the eve of the film’s Australian release Mandy caught up with Logan to talk the joys of getting kidnapped, the David Ayer filming process, and the question of franchises.
So on the spectrum of shooting a romantic comedy in Tuscany to shooting a Werner Herzog film in the Amazon, I imagine filming a war movie would be closer to the Herzog side, particularly a David Ayer war film?
Logan: Yes, definitely.
I understand going in you knew that it was going to be tough film to be a part of. Having come through the other side was there anything that surprised you about the experience?
Logan: Everything surprised me about the experience. David Ayer’s process is ‘give yourself 100 per cent to the process but not know what you’re going to be doing. And never know what’s going to be coming next and be surprised’. He was just always surprising us and challenging us.
There was a lot of preparation time – with the military boot camp and the rehearsals – do you think that really helps in a film like this?
Logan: Yes. Yes it’s so important. I can’t stress how important it is to making a movie like this – when you’re trying to bring authenticity to a very important subject matter.
Is it true they kidnapped you one night and the rest of the cast had to work out how to get you back?
Logan: Yes. Yes that’s true.
Was that a scary experience?
Logan: No it wasn’t scary. We were in the middle of boot camp and it was exhausting. Because all they try to do is physically exhaust you and give you ‘impossible tasks’ and make you break down and frustrate you. And so they gave me this impossible task after I think we screwed up once – which of course we did because it was an impossible task so we were always screwing up [laughs]. So they made me put on a backpack which was like 50 pounds and do the whole course. We had this huge obstacle course which was just exhausting to do even without the backpack, which was on top of all of our gear so that was a lot of weight. So I had to run around doing stuff and midway through they kidnapped me and put me in a jail cell in the rain for like two hours…and I was just in heaven. That was a nice break for me [laughs].
Meanwhile the other guys had to run around? Yeah I think you got off lightly there.
Logan: Yeah the other guys had to go through drills to go find me – you know find clues and I’m just lying in the mud going ‘this is heaven’. I’m not even cold…it was just a nice out for me. It was a luxury [laughs].
Well I’m glad you got some down time there! Because of the nature of your role – being the young one coming in to this older, experience crew – do you think that was replicated in any way in the bonding sessions, do you think they might have gone extra tough on you?
Logan: Oh yeah they definitely did. Yeah. It wasn’t an easy experience, let’s put it that way [laughs].
Did you shoot the film in sequence?
Logan: It’s really impossible to do that but the movie takes place in a 24 hour period of time so that allows us to shoot one location and never have to return to it again, and shoot that location in order, so we did shoot a good amount of the film in order, and we chose locations in sequence. But then inevitably you can’t really keep doing that – scheduling wise – you have to keep moving around. But a lot of it was shot in order.
As part of the promotion of the film [director] David Ayer was asked if he thought he ever pushed you guys too far, to which he replied that he thought he had in the dinner party scene. When I read that I hadn’t seen the film yet and I thought ‘really? Dinner party scene? Isn’t this a war movie – how could that be the worst?’ But now that I have seen it I understand – that was a very tense scene. Was it difficult to film?
Logan: I mean yeah that’s a tough scene. It was a challenging one. For me I was more of an observer of their relationships so it was more about the other guys than it was about me.
From everything I’ve heard this film has been very well received by war veterans, do you find that rewarding?
Logan: Yeah, I mean it’s incredible. Those were the reviews I was waiting for and nervous about the most – the veterans’ perspective and if they thought the movie was accurate. And they all seemed to appreciate what we did.
That war was 70 years ago, not that long in the grand scheme of things, but it’s sad that we’re going to be the last generation that can actually talk to the people who experienced it, get their personal stories. Did you speak to any veterans as part of your research?
Logan: Oh yeah we spoke to many many veterans but among those were World War II veterans. And it was incredible to sit down with them and hear their stories. They were very generous, very generous in sharing details of their experience that they haven’t shared with anyone since the war.
That’s it I guess you read about how a lot of them came back and didn’t know how to talk about what they went through because it’s obviously…
Logan: Yeah they don’t want to talk about it. And talking about it now for them it seemed almost…therapeutic.
I have to say that war and violent films aren’t usually ones I enjoy watching but I did really love this film and I thought you were all fantastic in it. It must have been exhausting though and I hope you got a decent break afterwards?
Logan: I did yes. I took a little time off [laughs].
In your career you’ve straddled very well the indie/blockbuster line, do you know what you want to do next or are you just attracted to the story?
Logan: Yeah for me it’s all about working with a great filmmaker, so I’m waiting for a good filmmaker to have a project for me and I’ll work immediately. I would have gone straight to work after filming “Fury” if there was a great film to shoot, but there wasn’t, so just waiting for that great film to shoot.
So you really want to wait for the projects that appeal to you or it’s more the people you want to work with?
Logan: If there’s anyone in particular I want to work with then no, there’s so many great filmmakers.
It seems like there’s a really great generation of new talent coming through in terms of behind the cameras, although they seem to all be snapped by up by “Star Wars” and Marvel. You have been part of a franchise before with “Percy Jackson”, would you be interested in doing another one?
Logan: Yeah if there’s a great filmmaker behind it. There are great franchises so I’m not opposed to doing them. I just don’t want to do the bad ones [laughs].
Well that’s the key isn’t it! Thanks so much for your time Logan, I know the film has had a fantastic opening weekend in the US but I’m sure it’s going to do great internationally as well.
Logan: Thank you! Appreciate it.
“Fury” opens in Australian cinemas 23 October 2014
