Jesse Bradford and Ryan Phillippe Plant the Flag

Neither Jesse Bradford nor Ryan Phillippe had acted in a war film before but both handsome actors jumped at the chance to pay tribute to the young World War II Marines and sailor who raised the American flag over the embattled island of Iwo Jima in the film Flags of Our Fathers. And, of course, both guys were hot to work with uber-talented and respected legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood. Jesse plays Rene Gagnon, a handsome, self-absorbed fellow who is happy in the limelight and Ryan plays John "Doc" Bradley, the only sailor in the midst of Marines and the medic for his unit.

These two young actors couldn't be more opposite, at least in looks. Ryan is blonde and fair and Jesse is dark and brunette. Casually-dressed Ryan had literally just flown in for the press day from his location in Texas where he is playing an Iraq war soldier in another film and was jet-lagged. Jesse had on a crisp brown suit and blue dress shirt but the two diverse young actors shared a bonding experience while making the film and were very willing to chat with us about working with Clint, the characters they play, shooting in Iceland ("great bars") and what they hope young men and women today will take away from the emotional film.

TeenHollywood: Ryan, you come from a military family, right?

Ryan: Yeah. I wasn't like an army brat kind of thing, but my grandfathers both fought in World War II. One grandfather was on the ground in Germany and my other grandfather was in the Philippines. My dad served in the Navy during Vietnam, my uncles were in Vietnam on the ground, so it was huge for me to get to pay tribute and to kind of tell a story having to do particularly with World War II, the greatest generation, the men of that time, and children of the depression who then were put into this situation, were responsible for the shape of the world in a lot of ways.

TeenHollywood: How much research did each of you do on the guy you played?

Jesse: My main thing was I got to play this guy right and I've got to do him justice. Rene could be considered sort of the least sympathetic character. There are some negative traits to him but he voluntarily joined the marines to end up fighting one of the bloodiest battles of all time almost. It was my job to emphasize that and hopefully bring some complexity to him and some sympathy to him. He's got one son, Rene Jr. who I spoke to many times. Rene Jr. kind of blames his mom for pushing Rene into the spotlight and having this sort of control over him that she exercised relentlessly. I think Rene looked up to his dad a lot and just wants everyone to know that he was just a kid trying to do right. So that's what I was going for.

Ryan: There is the responsibility that comes along with playing someone who I feel was really a pretty great person, and had gone through these experiences. But in a lot of ways it makes my job that much easier. This man existed, I can see pictures of him and know how he smiled and talked to his son, and find out how he dealt with people, and read the book and know what was important to him during this battle, it really does a lot of the work for me. Then it's just about making sure that I'm prepared enough to replicate his ability with his equipment and the first aid stuff that I really took a lot of time to make sure I got right. His son [who wrote the book "Flags of Our Fathers"] was on set. It's pretty cool, it makes it all that much more important.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk a little about working with Clint? We've heard from other actors that he has such a laid back directing style and leaves it up to you to bring what you can.

Jesse: The only thing that was difficult every once in awhile was that he literally does one take per shot. Maybe two if you're lucky. But, the amount of times we did one take was staggering. That forces you to be on your game 100% and really be clear about the beats in the scene. I did a lot more practice and rehearsal in my room because of that.

Ryan: I read that he had optioned this book in the newspaper and I immediately went out and bought it and read it within the next two days, and just thought to myself if there was one thing I could do in it, be involved with it in any capacity, the smallest role, I wouldn't have cared, I just wanted to be a part of it if at all possible. I was in my office in Venice when I got the call from my agent, and I literally dropped to my knees, I literally was just praising God, it was one of the better professional moments of my life to get that phone call. It takes awhile to get over the fact that you're working with this legend and then you find yourself having beers and talking politics with him, because he's so easy to be around, he's funny, and he treats people decently.

TeenHollywood: Since the real island of Iwo Jima is kind of a shrine to the war, you shot a lot in Iceland. Uh, what was there to do there?

Jesse: Iceland is great. It's awesome. It is not Podunk at all. It's not back woods. It's thriving. It's metropolitan feeling. They've got their finger on the pulse of what's hot. There was an occasional beer after work. There is an amazing nightlife.

Ryan: Iceland is just one really diverse landscape, it's really wildly diverse, but in Reykjavik, the Icelandic people party hard on Friday and Saturday, 'til sun up and through the night. Yeah, we'd blow off a lot of steam, we were doing really physical work, carrying forty pounds of equipment when we were doing the war stuff. We weren't treated like actors, we carried our own stuff, we were responsible for each other, yeah, when you have a bunch of young guys, particularly young actors on a location with disposable money and that sort of thing, we had a good time.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk a little about shooting the battle sequences because according to the press notes, you sometimes didn't know when or where Clint was going to set off an explosion?

Jesse: Yeah, we kind of didn't even know where the camera was sometimes. It was this huge scope. 500 extras running in the same direction with explosions going on around you. It was pretty massive. There were times when we didn't even realize they had started rolling and then everybody starts moving and you go, 'Oh well I guess we're shooting.' And you just go. I think Clint likes that. I think he likes the idea that some things are going to come out as a happy accident.

TeenHollywood: Ryan, your costars said that you became sort of the on-set medic.

Ryan: Yeah, if I was able to handle it I did. I took care of it. You know, if somebody got a little cut or this or that or somebody sprained their ankle I wrapped it, you know. We called each other by our character names the entire time. It's... it's fun to act and it's fun to play make-believe and it's fun to be an adult and still have that license to kind of immerse yourself in it and form those bonds and those relationships and pretend like you are these people, and we did that and it was great. It was I think really effective and it brought us all really close.

TeenHollywood: Ryan, your character is set apart from the rest because, being a medic, he has to watch out for everybody else. Everyone is dying and calling for him. What went through your head when filming something like that?

Ryan: There's something so primal when they're calling. These men are wounded and they're calling out 'Corpsman [medic],' it's very much you could substitute, 'Mommy,' or 'Daddy,' in its place, because it's just a desperate basic need when they're wounded on a battlefield and these are young boys. [I was thinking] They know that they can't save everyone, you can't get to everyone, and what a frustration that is. He's also set apart because he's not a Marine, and he's not carrying an automatic weapon, he doesn't have grenades on him. His job is to preserve life for his unit and his country, and not take it, and I liked having that perspective. Japanese snipers were told to take out the corpsman because if he dies, that means probably another ten marines will die, and also what it does to the morale of the men to see their father-figure, the caretaker, die. So they were in a lot of danger.

TeenHollywood: Your characters were very young. What are you hoping that the 18 and 19-year-olds today get from this movie?

Jesse: Boy, that's a good question. I hope everybody gets from this movie the idea that there is a degree to which a war has to be sold to the public and bought. You've got to pony up and go for it. As far as the current military conflict, I think we were sold this war on false pretenses. I think most people feel that way at this point. I'm 27 so with my generation and on down, there's an ambivalence. I hate to quote such a sort of current pop tune but John Mayer has got that song, 'Waiting for the World to Change.' There's a degree in which I think is true I think of this generation. There's this whole 'Whatever. There's nothing I can do about that so I'm just going to text message my buddy and we're going to go do this'. I hope that seeing this movie can make people in that age group go 'wait a minute. There is a lot of manipulation out there and there is a degree as to which this stuff isn't as cut and dry as it seems and it's real. It's gritty and it's real and it's really happening'. I don't know maybe it will just put a little more reality into it.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.