I don’t know that anything I’ve ever done compares to the relentless aspect of that mental and physical incarceration, and I went straight from doing that to doing a movie about schizophrenia. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, physically. I’m there for a reason, and I got a lot out of it. When you’re living in that space, you want to honor these men and women. You can have a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey and transition back into your civilian life, but I had about four days notice before I jumped on board, so for me, the first three weeks or a month, I worked every single day, and I’m grateful for it because I didn’t really have a chance to think about anything. Did all of it weigh on you, right from the beginning, or did you get through the shoot before really feeling what you had gone through? Obviously, you know you’re filming and that you can go home or to a nice hotel room, once you’re done for the day, but there are people who are captured and tortured, who hopefully can find a way to survive it somehow. Those other actors on that show and the guy behind the camera and that director care about me.” That’s a good thing. I hope there’s a returning service man or woman that is able to see it and say, “You know what? That fucking guy cares about me. When you see where this goes and you see this existential journey and you see this stalwart walk from this man who genuinely doesn’t want to deal with anything and who is forced to deal with all of it, and what he learns on the other side of that journey and what he learns along the way and what he teaches people along the way, it was special. I wanted to just honor the individual, and I’m really proud of it. I felt that it was very important to honor that struggle, in a way that took it out of politics and the flag and the message of your country. It’s hard for a guy or a woman who works from 9 to 5, every day, and certainly it’s much more difficult when you’re in these situations and you’re asked to fight for your country. It’s hard for me, and I’m just a storyteller. I don’t understand how those two realities exist in the same space. These men and women in our armed services are expected to perform, both mentally and physically, in an arena of war, and also pay their cable bill and their house payment. Most of us will never, ever experience the decisions they have to make in one day of their lives, let alone every moment of every day, and that affects everything around them. He let me touch his humanity and experience how his humanity was affected by everything that he saw and that was asked of him. But if you do answer honestly, I have a feeling that you and I are going to be here drinking whiskey for a long time, and we’re really going to get into it.” I asked him the question and he answered me honestly, and then the conversation began. And if you don’t answer honestly, I completely understand and I really don’t have anything else to say. I had an opportunity to talk to him and he said, “You can ask me anything you want.” I said, “I’m only going to ask you one question, and either you’ll answer me honestly or you won’t. I noticed his behavior, early on, and something he was doing to compensate was curious to me. It was not with him, but I had a long conversation with a Navy SEAL, on my own, and he became a very good friend of mine. GOGGINS: Mitchell Hall was our tech advisor on Six. What most helped you in grasping just what being a SEAL really entails? Whenever you hear stories about SEAL teams and their missions, you feel a sense of appreciation for what they do, but it’s hard to fully grasp what a job like that puts you through, physically and mentally. It was also a chance to have what has taken me upwards of six and seven years (with Justified and The Shield), respectively, that kind of a journey in eight episodes. It was about the individual, and I think that that’s been neglected in the conversation. When Joe fell out, they said, “Let’s go to Walton.” I had a long conversation with them about it and, for me, I felt like I had an opportunity to really honor the struggle of men and women in our armed services, in a way that wasn’t political and it wasn’t about America. How did you read this script, see what it would put you through, and then say, “Yes, sign me up for that!”? I had a cappuccino at the beginning of the day and the middle of the day, and a beer at the end of the day, but you feel just a portion of the pain that people have gone through, in those circumstances. I’m sure someone will do a YouTube of how many times Rip Taggart was hit. It was a lot to be incarcerated for 14 hours a day, with your arms bound and your feet bound. Collider: You really get your ass kicked in this!
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