It’s the middle of TIFF, and I’m sitting at a table with Kilo Two Bravo star Mark Stanley and Lance Corporal Paul “Tug” Hartley. Hartley, whom Stanley plays in the film, was one of a dozen British soldiers who found themselves trapped in an Afghan minefield while trying to rescue a wounded comrade in 2006. The movie recreates their experience in often excruciating detail.
Did the two of you spend time together before the shoot so that Mark could model his performance on the real Tug?
TUG HARTLEY A lot of the other cast did, but Mark chose not to due to time and things. Looking back, I think it was the best call.
MARK STANLEY We were from very similar areas. I think there’s probably 30 miles that separate where the both of us were brought up in the UK. I’m from Leeds, he’s from Huddersfield. We’re both Yorkshiremen – there’s just a stretch of road separating us. But in terms of playing him, walking like him, thinking like him, I kinda had to leave that at home and just play the situation.
How do you get into the head of someone enduring this kind of trauma?
STANLEY Tug had written an account that was transcribed, and I carried that. That was a blueprint, immensely detailed. You could reference it and find out what he was thinking at certain times. There’s a moment when the third mine’s gone off, and he’d written in a very detailed way about how he was thinking he needed to execute [the wounded] to save them, to end their misery.
I think I speak for most of our readership when I say I can’t conceive of even being able to function in a situation like that, let alone surviving it.
HARTLEY There’s a fine line between heroism and stupidity, you know, and I think we all crossed that line that day. If someone had asked me the week before, you know, you’re stuck in a minefield, you’ve gotta get from point A to point B, would you throw your backpack and jump on it? And I’d have been like, “Not a chance.” But the world doesn’t understand the sort of bond and brotherhood that’s forged in the military, you know. And my job that day, unfortunately, was to look after them. You have to sacrifice things for the greater cause.
See our review of Kilo Two Bravo here.
