"After I left Reservation Dogs, I knew that if it was a Native story, I needed to have Native writers, Native directors. That was my standard leaving Reservation Dogs," Toronto-born actor D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai tells Exclaim! during a press visit to his home city.
"My standard leaving Warfare, I just know I want to create great films that leaves you thinking and leaves you questioning, and this is a film that makes you question. I want to continue creating films that spark conversations."
A decidedly apolitical film, Warfare, in theatres now, follows a team of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission in the thick of the Iraq War. Warfare, also serving as Woon-A-Tai's first leading role in a film, "shows the true consequences of war."
As the young actor aptly puts it: "War is hell."
The film sidesteps the usual war film formula, instead unravelling a surveillance mission in real-time. Ray Mendoza, who Woon-A-Tai portrays in the film, was the communications officer on this real-life operation, and directed the film alongside Alex Garland.
Woon-A-Tai describes Mendoza's screenplay as feeling "less of a script and more of a transcript," given Mendoza and Garland's desire to simply recount the mission without any need for deep character studies or epic battle sequences, Warfare sits in a unique place of the genre.
During a Q&A in Toronto following a screening of the film, Mendoza shared with the audience that the impetus for the film stemmed from the fact that one of his fellow SEALs, Elliot Miller (played in the film by Cosmo Jarvis), didn't have any memory of the mission following an attack on their position.
After an IED drop, Miller and another soldier were severely wounded, and Mendoza dragged an unconscious Miller back under cover. Warfare recreates this pivotal moment, and, according to Mendoza, Woon-A-Tai did it so faithfully to Mendoza's memory that the filmmaker had to take a moment after calling cut.
"Ray was right next to my side with the whole process, and to see him walk off — I knew what happened. I knew why," Woon-A-Tai says, recalling his side of that particular take. "It was a lot for everybody on set. Elliot came on set just shortly before that scene. It was our first time meeting Elliot. And for me, it was like a nail in the coffin of why were we here, what we were doing, who we were filming this for."
Miller would be a presence on set, which only emboldened Woon-A-Tai and his castmates' performances, each of them understanding the weight of the film and wanting to fulfill Mendoza's cinematic mission. "We heard stories of him [Elliot], so we knew how serious it was and how much responsibility we had as a cast to get this right, to tell this story for him," recalls Woon-A-Tai.
To prepare for their roles, the cast members — including Woon-A-Tai, Jarvis, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton and Kit Connor — attended a boot camp arranged by Mendoza. While weapons and safety training were a priority during camp, Mendoza set various tasks for the group, knowing they would fail to expose the strengths and weaknesses of each actor.
"Our weaknesses really came out throughout those three-and-a-half weeks, and, as a cast, we got to see who was weaker in some areas than others," says Woon-A-Tai. "What was amazing about this cast [was that], without even telling them, without even asking, they would be there for you. If one guy was stronger, and you have to carry, he will carry it for you. If we didn't have that three-and-a-half-week boot camp, we wouldn't see the same result as you do on screen."
While the boot camp served to teach the actors actual skills and bring them one step closer to portraying SEALs on screen, it also brought the group closer, engendering camaraderie and, inevitably, nicknames for all involved. Melton took his father's surfing nickname and became known as Top, Connor was known as Baby Face, and Poulter was dubbed Daddy, owing to his constant reminders about laundry day.
"Dozer, that's actually the real nickname given to Ray Mendoza," Woon-A-Tai shares as his on- and off-set moniker. "It was pretty layered, the nickname, because I also became a notorious sleeper on set and so 'Dozer' kind of fit. To be honest, we had a few nicknames for all of us."
So Will Poulter wasn't just known as "Daddy"?
With a wide grin, Woon-A-Tai assures, "He was just exclusively Daddy."