In simple terms, say your contract with the military is for 2 years. Youâre expecting to get out on the day you contract ends. But instead of going home, the government ships you back to
Decorated
As always, if youâd like to listen to the audio of the interview just click here. Itâs an MP3 and easily placed on a portable player. Finally, if youâd like to watch some movie clips from âStop-Lossâ click here.
Question: Can each of you talk about how Kimberly Peirce approached you specifically or howâd it come about that you were chosen?
Channing Tatum: I chose Kimberly on this one. I totally read the script, you know? I heard that Kim was doing a movie. I loved her first film. I read the script and had no idea about stop-loss. I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Steve (his character). The idea of playing a soldier was always in my mind. I donât know. I loved Steve. I thought that he embodied someone that Iâve always wanted to, like, be. I just never really had the balls to go and join the military, you know? Then I did a really extensive audition process, long, back and forth to
Ryan Phillippe: I had read the script. I had just finished working and I was worn out and I went to meet with her and we had a decent meeting and she didnât want me (Laughter) and the studio kind of did. I spent more time with her-
Channing Tatum: I didnât know that.
Ryan Phillippe: Yeah. I spent more time with her and then at that point I wasnât sure whether or not it was right for me either obviously. I felt like she was a filmmaker and she have me forced upon her and then I guess she changed her mind. We started spending time together and developed a great working relationship and I decided it was a great opportunity to work with her and to play this character. There was so much range and all of the emotion and stuff with this guy. As we started shooting I was so happy that it all worked out because I loved the experience and everyone I was working with so much.
Q: So how do you see this guy?
Ryan Phillippe: I see him as a guy who has always sort of known hat is right and lived that way through most of his life. I think he is a very straightforward, decent, honest guy and through the events of this movie finds himself having to reconsider all those things about himself. I think that crisis of conscience and that soul-searching over what is duty and honor and weighing what is most important to you, I think his whole life everything is kind of black and white to him, you know? Thereâs a right way to do things and a wrong way.
Q: You guys play best friends. I wondered if you had to get together separately to get that dynamic before you shot.
Channing Tatum: Well, I had never met Ryan before and we kinda just got thrown into boot camp together- Hollywood boot camp, you know? Six days out in the 106-degree heat of
Ryan Phillippe: Youâd be surprised how close you can get over the course of like six days around the clock with a group of guys and it was one of the best things Kim did for us and for the film because it was genuine and I think you see it and feel it in the movie.
Channing Tatum: Absolutely.
RP: I think even that boot camp laid the groundwork for where we are all at today, like the way we are all still hanging and stay in touch because it was real and we all genuinely like each other and it is a pretty diverse group in terms of age and background.
CT: We all get together. I mean, Ryanâs got kids so heâs a little more locked down, you know, but we all spent New Yearâs together. We all spent New Yearâs out in the country together. Weâre a family like that. A lot of people say that on movies, âYeah, weâre all familyâ, but this is really real. I love these guys!
RP: Plus this movie was started a year and a half ago.
Q: Once you heard of the policy of Stop-Loss, how important was that in your decision making process to take these roles?
RP: You know, for me, I never had a political agenda. I didnât want to feel like the movie did. What is most interesting to me about this movie in comparison to the other movies that are related to this war is that this one is strictly from the soldierâs perspective. It is strictly telling the soldierâs story itâs not about a leftist, anti-war. The fact that the character gets stop-lossed, that is the crux of what he goes through in the film, but that to me wasnât an overriding reason like, âOh people have got to know about thisâ. I think itâs good that people know about it and I think it has kind of been, not covered up, but put in the background. It is important to have an awareness of it, but it wasnât a crusade like, âThe world must know about stop-lossâ, you know?
Q: Do you have an opinion about stop-loss yourselves?
CT: I donât like to get political, but the only thing I have to say about that is that I feel like if there was a regular draft, you know like Vietnam, I donât think there would be a war still. I think it would effect different families, you know, richer families and I do not think we would not be at war.
RP: I donât like the term a lot of people are throwing around, you know, âThe backdoor draftâ because a lot of soldiers know about stop-loss. They know about the clause. Some of them donât. I think some of it is brushed under the rug and sort of breezed over and not brought to attention, but this is the only war itâs been used in really.
CT: Yeah, and I think the soldiers now are slightly more aware because weâre four or five years in. Itâs happened to a lot of people they know.
RP: Right.
CT: I think when they signed up it wasnât something they were told up front. Itâs not a big selling point when you are trying to get someone to sign up.
Q: (To Ryan) and your opinion?
RP: You know Iâd hate to have it happen to me. I can understand the frustration. I think if someone signs up and dedicates and survives the length of what their contract was meant to be- and I know that these soldiers in Iraq where they hate it. They hate being there and it is boring. Itâs a desert and they sit and think about every day, âIâm gonna get out. Iâm gonna give my mother a hug. Iâm gonna have a baby. Iâm gonna get this jobâ. Thatâs what gets them through there time over there so I canât imagine having that all taken away from you.
Q: Particularly at the eleventh hour.
RP: Absolutely at the eleventh hour and I think it speaks to really how unpopular this war is and how people do want it to end to kind of have to force people back into combat. Thatâs what it says to me.
Q: How did you guys become Texans? Did you just go and talk to a lot of people there in
CT: Being there helped. Itâs so atmospheric. Everyone talks funny.
RP: Yeah, and I know I put on the jeans and the cowboy hat the whole time I was there and I listened to all the country music.
CT: Iâm from Alabama and I love Country, but I didnât listen to it as much as you. (Laughter) I actually love country music, but you listened to it like a maniac! I was just like, âAaarghâ!
RP: I had further to go because I am East coast, Northeast coast, so I had to-
CT: overcompensate? (Laughter)
RP: Yeah.
Q: You were in the barbeque capitol. Do you love that?
CT: Wooh. I was 205 pounds when I got off that movie.
RP: Thatâs right.
CT: I was a big, old boy when I got off that movie. Iâve been 215 in my life, but that was when I was working out and a muscle head. Oh! It was just barbeque and beer.
Q: Thatâll do it.
CT: Itâs true.
Q: Are you trying to say that
CT: Nah. (Sarcastically) I think thereâs a little college there, a little one. I think they do a little drinking and a little partying.
Q: Whatâs that actually like, being a big movie in
CT: Itâs cool. You know, they embraced us. The more we went out and stuff the managers in the bars were like, âYeah, come on backâ, that sort of thing. They embraced us though. It was fun. It was a good time. We lived right on 6th St. so you couldnât walk out of your house without running into some of dunk person so you are just like, âOh, alright, yâall wanna get a drink?â (Laughter)
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Q: Whatâs with the little facial hair there? Is that for a role or-
CT: Yeah, Iâm doing G. I. Joe right now.
Q: Oh. Youâre the other G. I. Joe guy?
CT: Yeah, Iâm the other guy, but Iâm just trying to grow up a little bit. (Laughter)
Q: Channing, Iâll just throw this question at you. In the last few years your career has definitely exploded. You are doing G. I. Joe right now and you are also gonna be in Public Enemies-
CT: Little part, little part. I have a really cool, little part in that.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about what attracted you to G. I. Joe and what the experience has been like and also are you looking forward to working with Christian Bale and Johnny Depp?
CT: Oh man, that goes without saying. Thatâs obvious. Iâve been a huge fan of both those guys and Michael Mann. You know, G. I. Joe, I was originally opposed to it. Especially coming off of Stop-Loss, playing a soldier about a really sensitive topic? I had no interest in going to play a fake soldier in a hyper-real kind of fantasy war. I was just like, âNope. No thanksâ, and then it came back around and I met on it and I read the script finally and the script was great. It actually has nothing to do with war, nothing to do at all. Itâs like X-Men,
Q: Joseph plays the opposite side of you. Are you guys trashing off each other?
CT: Oh, you have no idea. (Laughter) You have no idea. In this he gets the better of me. Iâm strapped to a table and heâs torturing me so itâs not gonna be fun. Itâs not gonna be fun. Iâm like, âGreat, wait âtil number twoâ. Iâm like, âMmm, youâve got it coming.â
Q: Whatâs Franklyn? Thatâs something youâre doing?
RP: Yeah, thatâs something Iâve finished. Itâs a strange movie. Itâs hard to describe. Itâs essentially four different characters whose lives intersect in
CT: What was that now, what you said yesterday?
RP: Batman meets Magnolia. (Laughter)
Q: Itâs a futuristic film?
RP: My role, yeah, sort of takes place- I play two characters and the majority of it takes place in a sort of alternate reality, but the whole movie isnât set in the future.
Q: Do you have something coming up on the next few months?
RP: No. Nothing Iâm starting on right now. Iâm writing, but-
CT: babies. Heâs taking care of his babies.
RP: Yeah, my kids. Just hanging out.
Q: Ryan, youâve done two military, âcoming homeâ sequences. One in Flags of our Fathers, one in this film. Both have an undertone of irony. How else do they differ?
RP: I think they differ in their capacity. That war was absolutely necessary and I just would have given my life for. That generation kept a lot more to themselves. That displacement the soldier feels coming home and the notion of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), those things werenât really an aspect of World War II soldiersâ reality. I think everyone came home and kept it to themselves. I know my grandfather didnât talk about it. The guys today, I found, that we talked to that have served over in
Q: Did it surprise you to find out that Americans are inn hiding? That people that served our country are having to live under the radar now?
RP: It did, but I guess I would draw that same parallel to the ex-pats who are up in
Q: A lot of these guys, like your character, are feeling that they are at the top of their limits and they are going to flip and they shouldnât be sent back when they are in that state.
RP: Itâs a dangerous thing for the soldiers. Itâs a dangerous thing for the civilians on the foreign soil. Thereâs also this thing to me that is really disturbing. The army now will accept people that have legitimate injuries and legitimate deficiencies and put that back into combat because they canât get enough people over there. I now people who are in the National Guard in their 60s, theyâll take them to
Q: Have either of you made any trips over seas? I know a lot of actors have gone with the U. S. O. or whatever.
RP: No. I havenât.
CT: I havenât. I plan to though. Me and Joe and a few other guys are planning n doing some sort of documentary. Weâre still shaping what itâs really gonna be about. I just want to know what they think. What do they think about all these war films coming out. I want to give them the camera and let them ask me questions. What do they think? Do they think
Q: You talked to Kimâs brother who was a soldier over there. Is he okay about it? Does he seem like a regular guy?
RP: He seemed regular to me, but heâs really close friends with Channing.
Q: Did he have one tour or two?
RP: I donât know. (To Channing) Was it once?
CT: I know he was in for four years. I donât know how long he was over there.
RP: He was one of the ones that signed up after 9/11 with the intent of getting back at the people who aggressed against us. The thing is when he was over there Kim would
CT: Brett got out because of a soldier injury and he couldnât- his shoulder was all messed up and when he got out the guy that replaced him died. He died, actually, during the filming. He was the leader of a tem, of a sniper unit and they ran into an L-shaped ambush.
Q: Because your guy was a sniper too, did you get to talk to him?
CT: He wanted to be a sniper. He didnât actually get in. He was going back in to be a sniper.
Q: Ryan, you said you are going to write?
RP: I am writing right now.
Q: Is this a project you want to write and direct?
RP: It is something Iâm hoping to direct this fall, a small, kinda dark comedy based on a true-crime story, probably set in
CT: The kid should write. He should direct. I wanna work with him too. I want him to direct me one day.
Q: Do you have a boo-boo? (Laughter)
CT: Interesting story. (Looks around) Make sure my publicist isnât in here. Heâll kill me. I got into a head-butting contest with one of the soldiers last night.
Q: A real guy?
CT: Yeah. I lost (Laughter)
Q: So you havenât left it behind yet?
CT: Itâs not totally gone!