‘Only the Brave’ pays tribute to firefighters
‘Only the Brave’s’ Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin pay tribute to fallen firefighters
New movie starring Josh Brolin honors true story of those lost to wildfires in 2013.
As wildfires devastate parts of California and the West, “Only the Brave” serves as a timely reminder of the courage of those who protect others and of the sacrifices their families make.
Now in theaters, the movie stars Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges. The two, who previously worked together on Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 remake of “True Grit,” have a familiar ease with each other as they discuss the new film.
“Only the Brave” tells the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of firefighters specially trained in wildfire suppression.
During the Yarnell fire in 2013, the Prescott, Arizona-based crew lost 19 of its 20 members, including Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke of Hemet, when winds suddenly whipped up and changed direction. “Only the Brave” does not simply recount the tragedy — it paints a picture of the lives of the men who are willing to face such dangers.
“For these guys, it’s a different mentality. They are walking toward the fire while the rest of us run away from it,” says Brolin, who plays Eric Marsh, known as Supe (as in superintendent), the outfit’s boss.
Bridges plays Prescott Wildland Fire Chief Duane Steinbrink, who oversaw Marsh and his crew.
“These guys are so phenomenally brave,” observes the Oscar-winning actor, “but if you strip them down, they aren’t supermen. Some of them started as [screw-ups] but are into self-improving. They have imperfections like the rest of us and personal stories.”
Steinbrink was not part of the team fighting the Yarnell fire, and Brolin and Bridges say the chief was wary at first that a movie was being made about the tragedy.
“I knew it was a sensitive subject, because we’d have to deal with the family and friends of those who died,” Brolin says. “Particularly when it was first proposed. It was only the three-year anniversary when we were shooting it.”
Bridges and Brolin have played real-life people before and know that as an actor you can’t completely transform into the person you’re playing.
“When I met Eric’s parents, the first thing his mother said to me was, ‘Eric was a lot taller than you.’ So it’s tough,” Brolin says.
The actor says he told Marsh’s parents, “No matter what I do it will never be right, but I will represent him in the best way I can. I won’t be lazy about this. I’ll give it 110 percent, and I hope at the end of the day you feel that I’ve represented your son well.”
Eventually, Steinbrink came around to support the film, and he connected with Bridges over music.
“With Jeff, it’s always about music,” Brolin says with a laugh.
Bridges has been a longtime musician and songwriter, even winning his Oscar in “Crazy Heart” playing a country singer. Steinbrink has a cowboy band called the Rusty Pistols, and Bridges performs a song as Steinbrink in the film.
As is customary in action films like this, “Only the Brave” had a two-week boot camp — this one in the mountains outside Santa Fe, New Mexico — so the actors could train for their roles. Brolin says that was important because Steinbrink and former Granite Mountain Hotshots were involved in the training.
“It made us actors step forward to get it right,” he says.
Brolin already had some experience with firefighting. Nearly 30 years ago when he was shooting the Western series “The Young Riders” in Arizona, he struck up a friendship with Danny Martin, a wildland firefighter, and he started hanging out with him as a volunteer fireman.
“I liked the community,” Brolin says. “It wasn’t necessarily the firefighting or that I wanted to be in a really dangerous place. I came from a surf community that was very tight, and when I didn’t have that anymore, I missed it.”
Martin has remained a friend and knew Marsh, attending his funeral.
“So this movie is maybe my most personal,” Brolin says.
“Only the Brave” also stars Miles Teller, James Badge Dale and Taylor Kitsch as members of the Granite Mountain crew. Oscarwinner Jennifer Connelly plays Marsh’s wife, Amanda, while Andie MacDowell portrays Steinbrink’s wife, Marvel.
As they talk, Bridges and Brolin take the conversation into such topics as the late author Peter Matthiessen (“The Snow Leopard”) or emergent behavior. That is, when a number of entities form more complex behaviors in a collective, like flocks of birds or schools of fish that suddenly begin darting or diving.
Bridges sees a firefighting team acting in a similar manner, where “something is determined by what the person next to you is doing.” “An electrical connection,” Brolin adds. One thing the actors have in common is that their fathers were Hollywood stars — James Brolin and Lloyd Bridges — and their careers have also been marked by their collaborations with the Coen brothers.
Despite seven Oscar nominations, Bridges, 67, will forever be known as the laid-back “Dude” in 1998’s “The Big Lebowski.” Af-
“Wonderstruck” not only advances parallel plots, it also features two vastly different production styles. The 1927 segments were shot in black and white and are largely silent while the 1977 plot features color and
sounds.
As soon as Fegley read Selznick’s screenplay, he was captivated by the strange and magical tale.
“I went up to the New York for the auditions and I thought it was such an interesting role and then they called me back,” relates Fegley, a native of Allentown, Pa. “I met Todd Haynes, who was awesome. And then Todd just sent us an e-mail saying that I got it. I’m pretty hyped at how well the movie came out.”
While “Pete’s Dragon” gave Fegley the opportunity to do many of his own stunts and imagine sharing scenes with a giant, friendly dragon, “Wonderstruck” provided different kinds of challenges.
One of the key pieces of the puzzle for Fegley was figuring out what it feels like to live with hearing loss.
“Todd and I walked around New York wearing headphones with Millicent,”
says the actor. “We couldn’t hear anything. We walked around in a trance, almost. We could hear no sounds in a city that is filled with sounds. To hear – or rather not hear – New York City was incredible.”
Another way Fegley prepared was to watch movies from the 1970s, including documentaries on the New York City blackout of 1977 and “French Connection,” which Haynes suggested he check out.
Fegley was happy to do his homework for the movie but, in other ways, the role came naturally to him.
“Ben is a lot like me,” says Fegley. “I’m not deaf and I haven’t lost a parent but I think I added a lot myself into Ben. I was able to play around with Ben, and determine how he felt, in general. Todd guided us really well and helped me understand Ben’s perspective.”
Fegley enjoyed working with both Moore and Williams. “Julianne puts so
much time into everything she does. You will never meet another actress quite like her,” he says.
“And Michelle has a unique way of going through life too. She and I had a lot of conversations about [our mother/son relationship]. She is an incredible person.”
Not long after wrapping “Wonderstruck,” Fegley netted the starring role alongside DeNiro in “War With Grandpa.” He plays a youngster who loses his room to his grandfather and then comes up with a series of schemes to get it back.
“It was such incredible fun to do this role,” says Fegley of the film which costars Christopher Walken and Uma Thurman. “I get to play all sorts of different pranks on Robert DeNiro. It’s very funny. I get to scream at him and get very mad at him. So that was really enjoyable.”