Based on Ray Mendoza’s sixteen-year career as a Navy Seal on the front line, Alex Garland’s epic new movie Warfare is poised to be one of the most cinematic events of the year. A visceral, boots-on-the-floor depiction of modern combat, the story depicts the brotherhood of war through the characters’ memories of the event. Featuring a major cast of this generation’s leading male actors, coincidentally, we’ve featured stars Kit Connor, Charles Melton and Finn Bennett inside HERO and Heroine, each describing their experiences of the project and each other – here’s what they had to say.

Kit Connor

“Warfare was one of the best jobs I’ve ever done for many reasons but also because of the ensemble we had – not just because we all became really close, but also because there were just so many unbelievably talented people in that room,” said Connor in his HERO 32 cover feature, describing the instant camaraderie felt between the cast.

“Going into it, I was thinking, “This cast is crazy, this cast is awesome.” It was such an odd group of guys because every single person in that cast could lead a movie, that was the vibe it felt like they were trying to build. It was really cool because we all went in and it could’ve been a situation where all these guys had huge egos and instead, everyone put their egos at the door and decided, “I’m so happy to be here, I feel so lucky, I get to learn from all these other great actors, I get to do my bit, I get to work with incredible filmmakers,” and that was awesome… [It] was beautiful because we all created this incredible bond and now I feel like I’ve got genuine family all around the globe.”

Charles Melton

In conversation with Connor for HERO 32, Charles Melton – who plays Assistant Officer in Charge, Jake – echoed Connor’s sentiment about how the cast immediately bonded and fell into an army-like brotherhood – helped by intense group workout regimes and buzzcuts. “It was 23 guys coming together for this common goal to tell this story for Ray [Mendoza] with Alex Garland. It’s amazing and rare for everybody to come with the same goal, to serve the story. We did a boot camp, and we all shaved our heads… it was a symbolic expression of ground zero, we’re in this together.”

Finn Bennett

Warfare is a major turning point in Finn Bennett’s career. Following his breakout performance in True Detective: Night Country, Warfare propels the Irish-Bitish actor into the spotlight.

“The thirteen of us [actors in the cast] stayed at Pendley Manor, a hotel in Tring,” Bennett told us in Heroine 21. “We were shooting in Bovingdon Airfield Studios. I was really nervous, I tend to mainly work with women… I thought it was going to be so alpha, thirteen dudes, and Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, the co-director. But within – I kid you not – hours, we were suddenly like little boys running around, in the gym, we ate every meal together, we spent every second together. It was really beautiful. We were really like thirteen brothers. The filming itself was amazing, Alex Garland is one of the most brilliant and intense men I’ve ever met. Very authoritative but very gentle. He got the best out of us.”

Warfare is out now in the US and on 18th April in the UK.