But was it always the plan? Were people supportive? How did it begin?

Um, with me, it was, uh, little plays, theatricals at school.

Uh, then, uh, our lovely English teacher, Gerry McKeown, formed this little amateur group outside of school that I joined, and we did some, again, amateur plays, toured various festivals around the North of Ireland and Ireland.

And so the bug got me from an early age, you know.

And somewhere along the line, I, it was a fantasy to think, "God, wouldn't it be great to get paid for this?" I'm talking theater, you know.

Uh, movies, film was years and years away.

But, uh, but it was great.

Uh-huh

... maybe not so much for where you come from, but was it always the plan? Were people supportive? How did it begin?

Um, with me it was, uh, little plays, theatricals at school.

Uh, then, uh, our lovely English teacher, Gerry McKeown, formed this little amateur group outside of school that I joined, and we did some Again, amateur plays, toured various festivals around the North of Ireland and Ireland.

And so the bug got me from an early age, you know? And somewhere along the line, I, it was a fantasy to think, "God, wouldn't that be great to get paid for this?" I'm talking theater, you know.

Uh, movies, film was years and years away.

But, um, but it was great.

I, I, I got a chance at the Lyric Players' Theatre.

Uh-huh

So I wonder why you decided now is the time and why this? And maybe that's an obvious question, but maybe you could tell us.

No, that was nothing to do with the time or anything like that.

It was just a friend of mine had sent...

A message of a good friend in New York said, have you read this article by Dan Berry in the New York Times? October, nine years ago.

I hadn't.

She sent it to me.

I read this thing and I got...

In the treaty.

What do you recall of that meeting?

Just how ordinary everything was, how ordinary she was.

Extraordinary, of course.

Here's this wee housewife, her family arrear, her lovely husband, a couple of cats, a wee dog, sitting, talking about this faking horror that she uncovered.

796 babies.

It was so ordinary.

And she's lovely to talk to, you know.

When audiences walk out of the cinema having seen this, what feeling do you hope that the film leaves with them?

Do you recall exactly what you were reading on the page or what ideas you had maybe on the day of shooting where you added kind of more of the humanity that you were discussing?

Brad, I honestly can't remember that coming up with ideas because it just...

It was such a lovely script, and albeit a complex but three-dimensional character who'd gone through quite a few war zones.

And I've worked with two or three of these guys over the years, and I just wanted to make the words coming out of my mouth real.

helped enormously by working with Zach, by the way.

When we talk about the director of this film, who obviously Guy has actually been a military man himself and had kind of a very strong vision for this film, Liam, what is it like working with somebody like that who's kind of been there and done that, and did you find it to be a collaborative experience, or was he very much like, this is what I need, and you had to follow the playbook in order to kind of execute the script in the movie that he was looking to do?

Well, Guy was never one to say, do it this way or do it that way.

But he was very, I loved his vulnerability when he was sharing experiences he had in the field with a weapon and against an enemy.

And Liam, in researching this role, you find that with these special forces that we kind of sometimes don't worry about what happens to them afterwards, after they're done with their service.

There has to be a lot of

post-traumatic stress disorder

because there's no oversight.

And these guys have had to do things, extraordinary things, to keep us all alive.

And I can't begin to think about what I'm reading stuff at the minute, actually, that's very quite disturbing about what these guys and girls have to go through after a mission.

Yeah.

And I, I guess he remembered me and he...

So I was asked to go in and meet him for Schindler's List.

And, uh, and I had, uh...

You know, because it's set in the 1940s, I hired a '40s suit and I tried to, uh, keep my hair short and stuff.

And, and, uh...

And I spent about two, two and a half hours with Steven.

I remember that story.