Stars of the new D-Day movie ‘Pressure’ talk about film

Hi, this is Claire Barrett from Military Times. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak

with me today. I appreciate it. Hi, Claire. So I'll just jump in. I know we're on a ticking

time clock. So Stagg's weather forecast saved the Western world, but the weatherman was certain

I suppose, in his uncertainty. And he wrote in his diary on June 4th, 1944, that I am now getting

rather stunned. It is all a nightmare. What compelled you to portray a man who was described

as his own son as kind of a dour, irascible Scott? I think it was what he did rather than what he said

It's so interesting to hear that quote again. He sort of downplayed what his enormous contribution to the world was

And, yeah, just because he might have seen a little formidable or irascible or whatever doesn't mean that he wasn't full

of enormous integrity. And sometimes I think those people have to fight a little bit harder

for us to really appreciate it because they don't have the sort of honey of charm that

other people might have And I think that something that interests me in the postscript of the film that said he went to basically remove himself from the spotlight and went back to relative obscurity

Is that something that intrigued you about playing this man? There's all of these little people in history that pop up and make these huge decisions that save the Western world and we don't hear about them

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I think that's incredibly moving, really. He was just greatly interested and brilliant at his job

That's what his great passion was. So he wasn't looking for people, number one, to like him in a war room

It wasn't really his world or nearly anybody to like him. He was looking to do the right thing

and to deliver this forecast that he knew that he was capable of delivering

within the realms of possibility. Because people say, we need certainty. We need certainty

Is it going to rain? Is it not going to rain? Is it going to be sunshine? He's like, that's not the way the weather works

And I'm not going to be told by people who are not experts that that is the reality

And that is all very, very well. But when the stakes are that high and when people are enormously powerful and putting you under that amount of pressure to hold steadfast is heroic Absolutely

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me. I appreciate it

It was a wonderful film. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Kind of what particularly intrigued me most was the postscript in the film, noting that James Stagg, after the war, returned to a mostly quiet, unknown existence

You know, men like General Eisenhower are, of course, known and studied

But there are countless stories of these little people whose decisions carried the weight of the free world

That's what spoke most to me. But kind of what was the most, you know, what spoke to you about telling the story of pressure

You know, I think you picked up on something really profound in that because we do have a lot of those stories

and we tend to just sort of hear about or learn about the most dramatic

or the most swashbuckling kind of adventure stories or whatever, you know, whatever comes from war

And I think there's something quietly heroic about a guy like Stagg

you know, who's got to leave his pregnant wife, he's got to go to work, he's got to save the world

and he going to go home again as though nothing happened And you know superheroes kind of do that You know Clark Kent you know and you know maybe Stagg a bit like an intellectual superhero

in a way in that he has the courage to stand by his convictions

He has the courage to tell people who are superior to him

who are in charge of the biggest military machine in the world, what they do not want to hear, but what they need to hear

And that I just found fascinating as a character quirk or trait

But also this idea that one decision can change history and that you've got these really brilliant people

whether they be scientists, generals, officers, who are really capable, really smart

who've got very different ideas about what to do. And as the clock ticks down and as the time is about to be up

for launching or not launching the biggest invasion in history, seeing these men and women go crazy in indecision not knowing what to do is inherently dramatic and

it's something which you know i was interested in what let's bring people into the war room

that the results of like one stroke of the pen can change millions of lives can change history

and uh to make that really human and immediate and intimate is what we're trying to go for with

the film so yeah