Channing Tatum - Stop-Loss Production Notes - Dynamics Between Characters

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The film intrigued Abbie Cornish “because it made contemporary issues personal. It was an interesting exploration of what is happening in the world as told through a man’s desire to disengage from the war and how that affects his family, and the people around them. I also liked that it was very much an ensemble piece,”

Cornish says. Her character makes some life-altering decisions in the course of the movie. Cornish attributes Michele’s bold choices and spirit to an innate core of honesty and fortitude, qualities that also appealed to Cornish.

“When first exploring the character of Michele, I found her honesty and direct nature to be very strong. She has a big heart and is a pillar of strength many times throughout the film. Michele to me was a symbol of the realizations of war, its effects on both Iraq and its occupants and also the soldiers and their families. Michele embarks on a road trip with her friend but comes away a changed person. The idea of playing a Texan like Michele, a small town girl dealing with the effects of war in the same world we live in today, really appealed to me.”

Of course, Peirce also was a huge influence on Cornish. Cornish particularly appreciated and admired Peirce’s passion for the project.

“Kim engaged herself very much in the story of the characters and held them very close to her heart. She really enjoyed watching the film come to life and seeing the actors bring the words off the page. It was great to work with a director who so clearly loved and adored the characters so much,” Cornish notes.

Steve Shriver is another complex, multi-faceted young man, someone whom Peirce refers to as “a true believer” and was inspired by a number of real soldiers Peirce interviewed -“guys who loved their wives, who loved America, but after fighting never really came back and ultimately needed to go back to war to feel complete. Though I came to understand and love these guys and saw the heartbreak they faced in acknowledging and allowing themselves to live out this truth about themselves, the challenge in writing Steve was in depicting him honestly, with dignity and passion, so that we bring the audience all the way inside this guy, why he feels and acts as he does, why he must go back.”

Peirce auditioned rising young star Channing Tatum for the role and says she was impressed by his emotional depth and maturity, his range and his ability to take direction. She immediately championed him for the role and never regretted her choice. “Channing was sheer energy on the set, willing to try anything, go anywhere emotionally and bare that side of himself – his vulnerability, his sense of dignity, his feelings of brotherhood for the other men, that was so necessary in becoming that character.”

Tatum was both flattered and intrigued by the offer to play Steve. “’Stop- Loss’ was honestly one of the most raw, heartfelt scripts I had ever read. Since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by soldiers -about their morality and their ideals so to have the chance to play one was very exciting,” says Tatum. “And that was just at the start. It only got more interesting as we got deeper into the role.”

Returning to civilian life proves to be arduous for Steve, and Tatum says it’s because “in Steve’s head, he fell in love with the military. He found his place in life and his journey in the film is to figure out that it’s the military he’s really married to, and that’s very hard for him.”

But none of his insights into his character could have taken full form without the guiding hand of his director, he claims. “Kimberly is an absolute genius. No one, in that short amount of time, has ever been able to open my eyes to a character the way she did. Steve is a sniper at heart and what they teach you in the military is to be laser specific. Well, that’s what Kimberly taught me – to be laser specific in every single thing I did and said in the film.”

The dynamic among the characters of Brandon, Steve and Michele is equal parts personal and political. The two old friends and comrades in arms, Brandon and Steve, come to distinctly different conclusions about the war in Iraq and their roles there, and their reactions change their relationship forever. Steve and Michele’s relationship also disintegrates, all against the backdrop of Brandon’s “stop-loss” orders.

“Steve’s involvement in the war begins to take its toll on their engagement and their wedding is pushed further and further back until Michele has had enough. I spent some time (on location) in Austin (Texas) talking with women who have had boyfriends and husbands at war, most of them expressing feelings of fear, anxiety, loneliness and a separation between themselves and their partner when they returned. Throughout the film, Michele says it’s a sense of freedom in her life, that she can’t be (just) a military wife and that’s the only life Steve can provide, assuming he ever commits to her,” Cornish says.

“I think that anyone who has had a family member who has gone to war has struggled with the changes in their loved one when he or she returns home,” says Peirce. “Who is this person now…what has the war done to him—and to us? That is one of the key situations we wanted to address in this film.” Of course, Brandon, Steve and Michele are not the only ones having trouble adjusting to civilian life. The character of Tommy, while able to channel his smoldering rage and violent temperament to good effect during battle, cannot contain it easily in peacetime – with devastating consequences. Peirce set her sights on the prominent young actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt for the pivotal role. “And I did not want to compromise. I had to have Joe. He’s one of the best actors of his generation,” she says. Again, her instincts proved correct. “He was phenomenal to work with – a true method actor.”

Gordon-Levitt had a unique take on the character. “I think Tommy left home and joined the Army partially to escape demons at home and found a real family, found more connection and love in the Army than he had at home. think that when he comes back, he first has the same problems a lot of guys have when they come back but, for him, the old demons rear their heads again alongside new ones he has brought back from Iraq,” says Gordon-Levitt.

It was the script coupled with an opportunity to play a soldier that attracted him to “Stop-Loss,” he continues. “There are very few really good scripts so whenever I read one, it stands out. It was well written and a page-turner and seemed like an honest and heartfelt statement about what was going on today.

It’s brave enough to assert that nothing is simple, especially when it comes to war and being a soldier and what happens when soldiers come back. To play a soldier appealed to me, I had never played a soldier and that life fascinates me. I have a lot of respect for what a soldier does, and having gone through this experience I’ve gained even more. I don’t come from a military family. My grandfather fought in WWII, but my dad and my mom were peace activists in the ‘60s. I wasn’t allowed to play with G.I. Joes when I was a kid. Part of what I love about acting is to learn and explore facets of humanity that are different from me. A soldier is just about as different from me as I can possibly imagine,” Gordon-Levitt says. Some of that respect, he says, came from meeting with real soldiers as part of his research prior to principal photography and, he adds, another appealing aspect of the film was the opportunity to work opposite Mamie Gummer, who plays his on-screen wife, Jeanie. The couple endures a tumultuous, anguished relationship but, at first, perhaps having to do with Tommy’s taciturn nature, much of their connection is unspoken.

“The second day I worked, there is a little moment in the script, it’s literally two lines of stage directions. Kim trained the cameras on us – they weren’t recording sound but while this whole other scene was going on, Kim had us improvise this. It was really early in production so, for me, it was a great opportunity to get into the skin of Tommy and his relationship with Jeanie. Mamie was perfect. It’s a really different thing to do a two minute, improvised take rather than a scene on a page. Mamie was so genuine,” Gordon-Levitt says. He adds that this was a good example of Peirce’s directing style, which he describes as “very actor-oriented.”

“Kim really knows how to talk to actors, to communicate in a way so that you instantly get it. She doesn’t even have to say very much – she’s been living with these characters for so long and is so passionate about the work, she knows exactly how to get to the truth of their story and how to bring us there too,” adds Mamie Gummer.

This quality was especially helpful because, as Gummer points out, the fraught dynamics of Tommy and Jeanie’s relationship are never overtly stated but rather revealed through the story.

“In these big group scenes, Joe and I had to do a lot of improvising to create a relationship without having written dialogue. Occasionally, Kim would just whisper something in my ear, a small note that would be so right on. It helped that Joe was a great actor and a great guy,” Gummer says.

Gummer auditioned for the movie a year before cameras rolled, and the part of Jeanie appealed to her in particular. Her character was not featured in every scene but instead of returning home during her downtime, Gummer elected to remain in Texas.

“I just loved, loved the story, this script, this girl, this part. It was so far removed from my little New York City self, to come down to Texas and live in this world. I came across and interview with an Army wife talking about adjusting to him being back and the challenges that she faced. That was very helpful. Jeanie grew up in Texas, Michele is her best friend, they all went to high school together. The guys came back to Brazos after basic training and it seems like it must have been a whirlwind relationship and courtship, they got married right out of high school. Living in Texas, spending time here, watching these girls was really something,” she says.

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