It's not what stands in front of you. It's who stands beside you. Beautiful sentiment, right? Well, I am afraid I cannot take credit for it. That is the tagline for Miles Teller's upcoming film, Only the Brave, and it encapsulates the idea of brotherhood established by the depiction of the real-life Granite Mountain Hotshots. I recently sat down with Teller at the film's press junket in Los Angeles, and he explained how the process of going through boot camp together and keeping in constant contact on a group chat turned this ensemble of actors into brothers. The Whiplash star explained:
Well, the first thing that we did was they put us all through a boot camp because that was important and I felt like it brought the whole cast together. There was one or two of the guys actually who, I don't know if he was going method on me or something, but he was like 'oh what do you now, Donut?' Ok. But it was fun, man, and this group of guys is, it was incredibly well cast and we're still all in this group chat that everybody kind of contributes to daily.
So in their efforts to quite literally build themselves into firefighters, these actors were able to forge a bond reminiscent of the real men who battle wildfire blazes. That is a critical element to establish in a film like this because much of Only the Brave's most dramatic moments stem from the palpable sense that these guys care about each other. By learning to care about one another (and apparently bust each other's chops, which was the case with one or two of the other actors) in boot camp, they managed to achieve a real sense of chemistry. Becuase of that, now they even keep in constant contact in a group chat like a group of high school friends.
Miles Teller was not the only member of the cast to give me this sort of answer during the Only the Brave press junket. In fact, similar comments were made during my chat with Josh Brolin about his preparation to become real-life firefighter Eric "Supe" Marsh -- as well as how it compared to preparing for comic book movies like Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War). In that regard, Brolin similarly explained how the men under his command in the boot camp even started calling him Supe, and continue to do so to this very day.
Check out a brief snippet from my chat with Miles Teller below to see what he precisely had to say about becoming a member of the Hotshot team in Only the Brave.
Only the Brave opens in theaters tomorrow, October 20. Let us know if you are excited about the upcoming true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots in the comments below. Beyond that, make sure to take a look at CinemaBlend's 2017 movie premiere guide and our 2018 movie premiere guide for more information on all of the major movie releases set to debut over the course of the next year!
