STACK#127 May 2016

| 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 40 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 80 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 60 | 8 0 | 2 0 | 4 0 | 6 0 | 8 0 FEATURE When you were developing the movie, you met Chris and his wife,Taya. What was that experience like and what did you learn about him beyond what was already in the book? BRADLEY COOPER: Well, I don’t want to speak for Clint, but I feel like the most of what we gleaned from Chris wasn’t even from the book. It was much more about the weekend we spent in Midlothian, Texas, with Taya Kyle, their children McKenna and Colton, his brother, Jeff, and Wayne and Debbie – his mother and father. We got to spend a full weekend, which happened to be the same weekend that was the anniversary of his murder. So, it was a pretty heavy time to be there. We went there sort of curious and as we were flying back, we were looking at each other like, ‘Wow, we got a lot from that.’ CLINT EASTWOOD: Pretty heavy stuff. It turned out that the second day we were there was the first year anniversary. So, Taya was not in a great state then, needless to say. But we rode in a car with her, and she was great. We all just talked pretty frankly about what we thought about stuff. BC: No book could ever really give you what you get from meeting people in the flesh. You just watch somebody move through the house that Chris lived in and it tells you a thousand things – to sit at the dining room table or on the couch, or go into his backyard. There are a handful of scenes that came out of that weekend we spent in Texas where she was just telling us stories about their relationship. CE: It was also important casting-wise, because we wanted to get somebody to play Taya that we felt would not just do an imitation, but have that same spirit, which Sienna [Miller] did have. She came in to read for the part, and did a splendid job. It was surprising – she has this great American accent, so you don’t even know she’s British. Was it important for you to get the truth

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Director Clint Eastwood and star Bradley Cooper talk about bringing the story of decorated US Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle to the screen, in AMERICAN SNIPER. INTHE LINE OF FIRE

up on the screen, to shape what actually happened in this man’s life into a narrative story? CE: Where there weren’t actual incidents, all these various people that were hands-on or had lived this experience with Chris said, ‘Well, that could have been’ – because it all seemed to fit into this guy’s M.O. There were other sequences, too, which we shot and could have put in. But we ended with something that we thought would be realistic, and something that Chris would like. I wanted to ask you about Chris himself. What do you think drove him to this absolute extreme of the experience of fighting a war? BC: I think it’s those things that may seem saccharine in this day and age, but in the movie, he says to Taya in the bar, ‘I’d lay down my life for my country. I want to be of service.’ Those aren’t just words to him. He meant that. He wanted to be a cowboy and a soldier, period. And he lived his life that way since he was a kid, taking care of his younger brother and growing up to be the man that he was. That’s the guy that I got to know, and that’s the guy in the movie. It’s really kind of nuts and bolts. That’s just the way it is. It doesn’t make him a martyr; it doesn’t make him anything other than just a man, but that’s the kind of man that he was. CE: But he liked taking care of people. He liked the leadership aspect of it. I guess he felt that was his calling. He worked hard to become a great Navy SEAL, and a great shot, and he had to work hard, because those guys are all really solid citizens as far as their physical abilities, but they have to have the mental ability, too. He went back for four tours with his wonderful family back home, so he could have easily taken the other direction and said, ‘Well, I’ve done a tour. What the hell?’ But he felt that he had to go back, because he lost people and he wanted to avenge that. He felt that we should complete the mission there.

MAY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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