After working together on The Outpost a few years back, Scott Eastwood and director Rod Lurie have reteamed for the World War II action drama Lucky Strike, which follows one soldier trapped behind enemy lines during The Battle of the Bulge.
With the film now playing in theaters, we recently caught up with Eastwood and Lurie to break down some of the film's biggest moments and what kind of unique challenge this film presented to Eastwood compared to his many previous soldier roles. Then, Lurie gets into more detail about sharing this particular story and how it likely differs from the World War II stories we've seen before. The pair also reveal whether or not Eastwood was able to escape injury this time around.
The cast features Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad; The Longest Ride), Colin Hanks (King Kong; Jumanji: The Next Level), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard; The Help), and Taylor John Smith (Where the Crawdads Sing; The Outpost).
Lucky Strike hits theaters tomorrow!
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ROHAN: Scott, your character has quite a harrowing journey in this film, what kind of challenge did it present and/or training did you do to sort of mentally prepare yourself to be acting with yourself for much of the movie?
SCOTT: Well, to answer the first part of your question, I had done a few World War II films already, so I feel like I had done my training through the last two decades. I had done a Pacific tour, I had done a European tour, then even gone to Afghanistan, so I knew what the mentality of being a soldier was, but this battle, in particular, was one of the toughest historically, the Battle of the Bulge, so tough, so cold, so I don't know, you just kind of figure it out. It was freezing there, so yeah. And then, I think, yeah, acting opposite yourself is, yeah, you just gotta go on an emotional roller coaster every day.
ROHAN: Rod, there's a major twist near the end of the film that reveals something about WWII that I was also previously unaware of. What was it about the Battle of the Bulge that really piqued your interest and made you want to tell this story?
ROD: I mean, anybody who's a student of World War II, you know, knows that it was the last major battle of the European side of the Second World War, it was Hitler's last gamble. He threw everything he had at the Americans, so it was a very brutal battle. I mean, it was pretty much preordained that America was going to win that one, but it was going to be very, very tough getting there, and there would be a lot of needless deaths, and it was also the coldest battle I think that America ever fought in any war, and the brutality of it, you know, was such that you really wanted to sort of honor the men who went through that, and, you know, Rohan, at the same time, World War Two offers something very unique, which is an opportunity to make entertainment, like when we did The Outpost, our Afghanistan War film, that was not a piece of entertainment, that was, you are there, we want to tell you what actually happened, and, you know, how it went down, so that you can empathize with current veterans, but a World War II film, because there's so little ambiguity, or no ambiguity between right and wrong, it can be a piece of entertainment, it can be good guys versus bad guys, essentially, as well as sort of a little bit of a history lesson as to what happened in that particular battle, and what these guys had to go through.
ROHAN: Scott, on your last film with Rod, The Outpost, you famously broke your ankle. Were you able to stay injury free on Lucky Strike, or was there something you found to be more physically challenge this time around?
SCOTT: What was the most physical… you know, the whole thing, the whole shoot.
ROD: Yeah, you had some shit to do every day. It was not easy.
SCOTT: A lot of stuff to do and a lot of stuff to do in the cold, but, you know, look, this is paying homage to a generation of men that were a lot tougher than we were, and so. you know, you just sack it up and get it done.
ROD: Yeah, I mean, I was watching the film last night, we screened it last night at the National Archives, which is pretty, pretty cool, and I forgot how many scenes you have where it's really physical for him, and I will say to Scott's incredible credit, he never went to a trailer. He was there between every shot to help us get through the day, and the stuff that he had to do - there was one day, though, toward the end, where I said, ‘Okay, we're going to do this scene now this way,’ and he said, 'Show me how it's done,’ right? Just to let me do some of the physical stuff, I’m like 100 years older than him, but I did it. And, yeah, whether he's trudging through snow or climbing up a steep embankment or getting into an actual physical fight, and there was this one incredible oner, where he has to get into a tank, and, you know, it was a very, very, very physical film. I mean, the audience will feel his pain for sure.
Inspired by true events, Lucky Strike tells the story of one soldier trapped behind enemy lines during the last major German offensive during WWII, what will become known as The Battle of the Bulge. Armed only with his Motorola SCR-300 radio, a new technology only battle-ready near the end of the war, he must use his wits and spy craft to thwart the advancing Nazi Panzer army and find his way back home.