Warfare stars Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton were honored to help pay tribute to retired U.S. Navy SEAL Elliott Miller on behalf of co-directors Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland.
Mendoza, who’s also a retired SEAL himself, previously worked as the military advisor on Garland’s Civil War and contributed to the design of its battle sequences. Along the way, he struck up a friendship with the English filmmaker, before sharing the story of his fellow SEAL, Miller, and the rest of their platoon’s evacuation during a 2006 mission in Al Qaeda-controlled territory of Ramadi, Iraq. Upon wrapping Civil War, Garland decided to turn the harrowing account in their follow-up film, anointing Mendoza as co-writer and co-director of Warfare.
Mendoza and Miller’s team of U.S. Navy SEALs, which was regarded as Operation 1, were surveilling a residential neighborhood when they were attacked by neighboring insurgents, gravely wounding Miller (Cosmo Jarvis) and Quinn’s character, Sam, who’s based on another one of Mendoza’s SEAL peers, Joe Hildebrand. Miller, in particular, fell unconscious for the majority of the dangerous rescue efforts involving two other Operations. So Warfare is Mendoza’s way of showing his friend what happened on that fateful day, melding only the memories of the other combat veterans who were there.
For Melton, the specificity of Miller’s story is universal, as it even hits close to his own home.
“Through this art form and this gift from Ray and Alex, [Elliott Miller] can now actually see what happened to him on this specific day. It’s something indescribable,” Melton tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Warfare‘s April 11 theatrical release. “My father was also in the Army for 24 years, and he spent five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. So my mom and my family members now understand my father a little bit more because of what they got to see [in Warfare].”
Quinn’s role as a wounded officer required him to howl in agony for a sizable portion of the film. When asked about the emotional lengths he had to go to, he humbly redirected the attention to the collective. However, Melton insisted on underscoring how much weight Quinn and Jarvis shouldered.
“Joe [Quinn] and Cosmo Jarvis spent two weeks crying, screaming and yelling. And they did it not just when the camera was on them. They did it during every single take for days and days in a row,” Melton shares. “It brought this heightened sense that kept it so alive. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Besides Mendoza, several of the surviving SEALs, including Miller, visited the London set in the spring of 2024. Their insight, combined with a three-week boot camp for the large ensemble, made all the difference in bringing this experience to the screen as authentically as possible.
“Ray speaks about it as ‘the death of his youth,’ which is quite a statement,” Quinn recalls. “He said that he was a boy when he went into that house, and he was changed when he left. So it was incredibly useful having [the SEALs] there, and they were so kind and generous with their time.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Quinn and Melton also discuss the immersive sights and sounds on set, before addressing their respective upcoming projects, including The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Beef season two.
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Charles, your nickname on Warfare was “Top,” which is derived from your father’s surfing moniker. But Joseph, what makes you “Funcle,” as in fun uncle?
JOSEPH QUINN Well, I think it’s important to clarify that this name didn’t stick. We went out for a bit of levity at the beginning of the shoot. We went bowling, and my nickname on the bowling screen was Funcle. Will [Poulter] was “Daddy.” So I figured that [Funcle] might stick, but it didn’t happen, and I didn’t force it. But, in theory, I am the Funcle. [Writer’s Note: Poulter’s nickname was born out of consistently reminding the cast to do laundry. It also didn’t dawn on me until later that “Funcle” may have been a reference to Quinn’s Johnny Storm role that he shot directly after Warfare.]
I saw Warfare a month ago, and before it started, we gave a round of applause to the veterans who were in attendance. And throughout the duration, I just kept thinking that we don’t do enough for these people, especially right now. Did the two of you have a similar takeaway after simulating the lives of these SEALs?
CHARLES MELTON I think I can say this for the both of us, but we are just actors. What we went through pales in comparison to what happened on the specific day [in this story] and what servicemen and women do. There was an immense responsibility and accountability that we all had, and committed to, in telling this story for Alex [Garland] and Ray [Mendoza]. It was so that Ray could then tell it to Elliott [Miller], but it was also for veterans. Elliott has been told what happened to him on this specific day, and he’s read transcripts of what happened, but he doesn’t remember it. So, through this art form and this gift from Ray and Alex, he can now actually see what happened to him on this specific day. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s something indescribable. My father was also in the Army for 24 years, and he spent five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. So my mom and my family members now understand my father a little bit more because of what they got to see here.
Joseph, similar to what Charles just expressed, nothing comes close to the actual brotherhood that servicemembers form in life-or-death situations. But did three weeks of boot camp develop a strong enough bond between the cast by the time cameras rolled?
QUINN Absolutely. It was very clear that this was going to be a very singular experience, and Alex said that it would be when we spoke about me coming onboard. So it was a luxury to have that amount of time to rehearse things and to get things moving at a pace so that we felt prepared when it did come time to turn the cameras on. And amongst all of that, we were able to invest a lot of time in each other. We lived together, we trained together, we ate together, we slept near each other. That was very formative and very valuable. When you are dealing with a film that has very little exposition and very little character backstory, it is really important to believe that these people care about each other. That way, you can invest in the characters and the unit itself. So those three weeks were invaluable and essential in the making of this film.
Some of the SEALs from the 2006 mission actually advised on set. Did they share a particular detail that struck you the most?
QUINN Well, the film explores memories, and as Ray says, there would be holes in people’s memories. So Alex really protected the idea that if you weren’t there, you don’t really get to [determine] the action or what would be on the page. And having those servicemen available to help was invaluable. It made it more profound as we relived an afternoon where they encountered an extraordinary amount of pressure. These men are a little older now, so they were recounting what happened to them in their youth. Ray speaks about it as “the death of his youth,” which is quite a statement. He said that he was a boy when he went into that house, and he was changed when he left. So it was incredibly useful having them there, and they were so kind and generous with their time.
How would you describe the co-directing dynamic between Ray and Alex? Did Alex handle more of the technical work so that Ray could focus on the authenticity of each moment from memory?
MELTON I’d say they were both focused on authenticity, and it really just set an example for all of us. Alex and Ray are both authoritative, and they know what they want and what they want to get. There’s a humility and awareness that they had and have for each other, especially throughout this process. If we had questions about what was going on, we could also ask the other servicemembers that were there and that some of us were representing. But it was all a beautiful dance. So I wouldn’t say Alex was only focused on the cinematic language. Alex and Ray were just a beautiful kind of concoction, and it all worked out so well.
Joseph, you must’ve had entire days where you were just wailing on the ground. How does one begin to approach 12 consecutive hours of that kind of agony?
QUINN We were all in there together, and that was the wonderful thing about the ethos that we fostered over those three weeks of bootcamp and the weeks of filming prior. It rarely felt like you were alone in it. So it was just a part of the job that I had to do as this character, but it was a shared endeavor. Obviously, there were complicated aspects to it, but I never felt alone in it.
MELTON Joe and Cosmo Jarvis spent two weeks crying, screaming and yelling. And they did it not just when the camera was on them. They did it during every single take for days and days in a row. That informed everyone’s performance as we existed in this immersive reality on set. When you walk in the room and you see the blood and you see what Joe and Cosmo are experiencing every single time, it brought this heightened sense that kept it so alive. I’ve never seen anything like it.
What I found interesting is that the soldiers were still quite humorous amid these harrowing circumstances. Do they use humor as a coping mechanism?
QUINN It’s a very human response to things, isn’t it? You have to find levity in the most macabre moments in your life. It’s a survival tool. These men would have long periods of time being idle, and the contrast between boredom and peril is pretty extreme. So, yes, any moments we could find to cut through that tension were welcomed by Alex and Ray. We would pepper those moments in because that’s what human beings do, regardless of whether you’re a Navy SEAL.
The internal and external sound design is really something special here. Were you usually made aware of what the intention was with the sound?
MELTON In the Rolodex of war films that we’ve seen in the past — and not to take away anything away from those films because there are many great war films — but sometimes the score can manipulate a certain scene. It almost tells the audience what to feel or how to feel. But with [Warfare] and no film score, we’re just left with our own interpretation in the silence and the sound. On the days we were filming, there would be speakers set up [to play sound], and we were shooting live rounds of blanks. Those were real [sounds]. The show of force with the jet flying over, they played that sound on the speakers, as well as the dogs barking outside. The explosions and everything, to the point of safety, were very real on set. Everything was created to be immersive so that we could really experience it all in real time.
There’s a photo epilogue of the real soldiers, and many of their faces are blurred. Is this because they’re still active in the military? Or do they simply not want the limelight?
QUINN I think, a lot of the time, it’s to preserve their anonymity. A lot of them are still serving, and while it’s impossible for me to say whether people want the limelight or not, I think, on the whole, it’s important to preserve their anonymity and their ability to remain in service.
MELTON There’s such a humility with all the SEALs that I’ve met, like Ray and all the other guys from this specific mission. I found out more about Ray from the other SEALs that served, and vice versa, I found out more about the man that I represented from Ray or other people from this mission. So there’s a humility and a never-seeking-praise way of life from these guys.
Charles, you’re currently working on a carnivorous feud show called Beef with Alex Garland acolyte Cailee Spaeny. Have the two of you exchanged stories from your Garland war films?
MELTON Oh yeah! Her and Alex are pretty close. I love Cailee, and I love the show.
Season two is going well so far?
MELTON You’re in for a treat, I hope.
Joseph, congratulations on the personalized new chair you recently received. I presume this is already old news in your world?
QUINN It’s nice to have somewhere to sit down.
QUINN & MELTON (Laugh.)
Your life is going to change once again this summer with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. You only had a couple scenes and you were rather covered up, but did director Matt Shakman remember you from the Game of Thrones episode (“The Spoils of War”) that you shot together in 2016?
QUINN It’d be awkward if he didn’t, wouldn’t it? (Laughs.) But, yeah, he remembered me, and it was one of those funny things. I earned my Game of Thrones stripe years ago, and I remember being so excited to be on that set. He was so wonderful and kind and really encouraging. Myself and Danny Kirrane did that scene together with Maisie [Williams], and it was a really wonderful experience. So, years later, when Matt wanted to meet me [for Fantastic Four], we went, “Isn’t this funny?”
Decades from now, when the Warfare cast reunites for an anniversary and you reminisce about the overall experience, what day will you likely remind each other of first?
QUINN That is an excellent question. The last day obviously comes with feelings of relief. There were elements that were quite exhausting about it, so there was the inevitable backslapping and pride that comes with that. But because the set was so contained, many of the days blurred into one, really. There were different aspects of the film that were memorable, but the experience in its entirety is something that will prevail in moments of doubt for all of us. It galvanizes us. We also have a very abundant group chat full of silly boys, so that’s always a good thing.
MELTON I think I’d remind Joe of the day where he was like, “Man, we’ll be lucky if we get to do something like this again. It’s not too often that a great experience like this happens.” And then we’ll probably have a cold plunge, a workout, a sauna, a good chat and a good meal.
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Warfare opens in movie theaters nationwide on April 11.
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