The Messenger, opening this Friday, tells the story of two casualty notifiers serving in the US Army, and the families who learn their loved one died overseas. It’s a somber project, one that actor Ben Foster and co-writer/director Oren Moverman take seriously. Foster and Moverman were in town late October to promote The Messenger for this year’s IMPACT film fest. While visiting DC, they also had time to meet with members of Congress and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center. Moverman, Foster, and producer Lawrence Inglee sat with me to discuss The Messenger, as well as Obama’s timely vigil at Dover Air Force Base.

BYT: How did your involvement with the project begin?

Lawrence Inglee: Alessandro Camon, who is the co-writer of the script, came to Oren with an idea to make a movie about casualty notification officers. It was at a time when pictures like the ones we saw yesterday at Dover [Air Force Base] were illegal. It was a very powerful suggestion, a very powerful premise. And then Oren and Alessandro brought the idea to me. From there we raised the money to get the script developed and turn it into a motion picture.

BYT: I read in past interviews all the notification scenes were unrehearsed. What was your biggest challenge in filming them?

Oren Moverman: The biggest challenge was to know when we got them. We were pretty headstrong about the way we made them. We knew were going to do it unrehearsed, throw everyone offset, leave a minimal crew, follow  [Foster and Harrelson] around, do the whole thing in one take, and not introduce the notifiers to those being notified, so that everything is a surprise and spontaneous. But then you do it, and there’s no real articulate way to say whether it works or not – you just have to feel it. The shots weren’t a few seconds -  it could have been anywhere from three to eight minutes.  Also, [the scenes] were so draining so there weren’t a lot of possibilities. We’d do them a few times and that’s all we’d get. I never watched the actors. I had a portable monitor and only watched that, even if I had to move around with the cinematographer. All I was doing was imagining it on the big screen.

BYT: How was this week’s experience at Walter Reed Medical Center?

OM: As always, it’s amazing, inspiring, and angering. All the emotions you can imagine. Most of the guys we saw came back from Afghanistan recently. For some reason, we get the horrible numbers of those killed in combat, but don’t get exact numbers of wounded, which adds up to tens of thousands. These guys are amazing. They all consider themselves the lucky ones, and talk about how fortunate they feel to be alive. It’s a long process ahead of them and it’s going to be quite painful. The big question is if we’re going to remember they’re there.

BYT: Ben, you had a strong rapport with your co-star Woody Harrelson. Did you spend time together offset, or was it all in front of the camera?

Ben Foster: Yeah, well, you gotta shake the ghosts out at the end of the day. We were all pretty inseparable, all four of us.

LI: Still are!

BF: Yeah, still are. We’re dragging this fucker out. *laughs* We’re going to be opening hardware stores in 30 years with this movie. Woody is an exquisite human being, and getting to work alongside someone I admired for so many years was a remarkable experience. I’d look into his eyes and we’d feel terrifying things together. I love the man.

OM: He loves you, too.

BYT: Earlier this week you met with Hunter Biden to discuss The Messenger. Do you think it’s a coincidence President Obama visited Dover Air Force base days later?

OM: Since we’re not politicians, we can talk in more abstract terms. We feel like we put something in the ether. Obviously, it was funny for us to take credit for the visit. I do believe [the Dover visit] was planned before we shook the hands of Joe Biden. *laughs* He said, “Hello, how are you?” and that’s all we got from that meeting. I don’t think he learned we did a movie about casualty notifications, and then said to the President, “We should go to Dover.” Sometimes you have to print the myth. It was so timely – you saw that Harrelson’s character says, “They should have the funerals on TV.” We feel very connected to this moment, so hopefully our film can enter the conversation on some level. The people who came to the movie last night, like Hunter Biden, are talking about it in relation to the big decisions. That’s why we like opening the movie in DC, this is where the decisions are made. We’d like the decision makers to be made aware of the lives they’re impacting.

BYT: How was working with Samantha Morton?

BF: *whistles*

OM: How is like working with… oh God, I don’t have a metaphor for it. She is sublime, one of the greatest actors on the planet. We all fell in love with her. She is remarkable person and artist. What she did in on set blew our minds. There’s a nine-minute take in a kitchen where Ben and Samantha are trying to connect. She tells him what we call “the widow story.” What you saw in the movie is the rehearsal. [Ben] was watching her as we were, in awe of her understanding of human nature as well as human behavior. She’s a force of nature.

BYT: Ben, how did your time at Walter Reed influence your approach to your character?

BF: It’s hard to separate the character and myself. It continues to affect my experience as a human being. And having the opportunity to work through some of these very difficult questions is a gift. Going to Walter Reed is something, particularly those who live in DC, should do. They should thank our soldiers, and see it up close. It’s amazing how many opinions there are floating about. These people claim to be well-informed when they’re cynical and chilly. They know nothing of what it means to be a human being, serving your country, and coming back missing limbs.

BYT: Have any soldiers there seen the movie?

OM: Their reaction has been strong and very powerful. We get a lot humbling gratitude when they thank us for making this movie. We tried very hard to get it as right as possible. In terms of representing the army and soldiers’ lives, 99% of what we did we got right.

BF: We had tremendous support from the army. Paul Sinor, the Lieutenant Colonel who was head of casualty notifications for two years, was on set every day. He kept us in line, but we did fudge a little bit. Now they bring a chaplain to notifications. By getting rid of the chaplain, we could pay a little more attention on the relationship between Stone and Montgomery.

BYT: I haven’t heard of that. For how long has the chaplain policy been in place?

OM: In the last year or so. You know, there is a lot of experience gained over the past eight years.  [The army] is constantly trying to make the notification process better. I don’t want to over-praise the army, but they’re good at looking where things went wrong, working out the next level of fixing them, only to work out the next level after that. They’re very aware and open of problems in the notification process. They send a chaplain when they can. There is some leeway with the chaplain – he or she is allowed to touch the person [being notified]. But you can’t do the job well…

BF: *grunts*

OM: … because of the nature of what you bring to the doorstep. The only way you can do this job well is by eliminating the need for it, but that’s going to take a while.

BF: I don’t see that happening… ever. I’d like to believe in some kind of utopia, but that’s a load of shit. There’s always going to be war, and there’s always going to be notifications for as long as we’re on this planet. We can accept the fact that there will be losses. Addressing the problems at home with compassion is the only way to improve things.

BYT: What are your plans after you leave DC?

OM: Tomorrow we’re opening the Savannah Film Festival. It’s going to be one freaky opening. I don’t know if people will show in costumes, but I hope they don’t.

BF: Oh yeah, it’s Halloween, right? I bet we’ll have one girl in a bee costume. What about you, what are your plans?

BYT: I have a Muppet costume.

BF: Which Muppet?

BYT: I’m going to be Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

LI: I always forget his name!

BF: Do you have someone going as Beaker?

BYT: You know what? My Beaker has swine flu.

BF: *laughs, imitates Beaker, snorts like pig*

OM, LI: *laughs*

BYT: Thanks for this, guys. Enjoy the rest of your day!

BF: No problem.

OM: Don’t mention it.

Take a moment to think about soldiers overseas this Veterans Day.