Band of Brothers Actor on Playing Easy Company's Denver 'Bull' Randleman | Michael Cudlitz

[Music] sorry sorry you don't be sorry I had not met anyone who didn't love it who didn't think it was incredibly accurate who didn't think it captured exactly what was going on with the company keep down stay still keep moving get uping I feel confident saying we we represented the men well tenant so does not hate Easy Company private R just hates you thank you sir based on what we hear from them we feel like we we nailed it you know because we we did the work that we needed to do to portray those men in that time as best as we could you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good good will prevail I found out about banded Brothers uh I think I was where I was doing construction at the time I paid my way through school doing construction for film and television and I heard that there was this um you know this this all we heard was there was a minseries about World War II that was being produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks um and I think most of us early on the idea of that combination of people doing a cool project for us the immediate thing wasn't about the men we didn't know the men we didn't know what the project was about we didn't you know all we knew was a Tom Hanks Steven Spielberg HBO does quality stuff this was an opportunity for us to advance our career had nothing to do with the men to be perfectly honest it wasn't until you get cast and you start to explore what we're doing and get the material and go oh it's a real guy and you get the file and you get you sort of realize slowly the the importance of the project uh or the potential importance of the project is still you don't know you get cast you move forward they tell you okay here's your guy or here's a friend to your guy why don't you call him you know we've checked we've cleared with him give a call get some information in my case um we were told that Denver had passed nobody could get in touch with them they didn't know he was still alive so I was talking to uh to Hashi one of his good friends and uh I ask him all these questions and you know we get ready to finish up and he's finishes up with um uh you know uh when you when you talk to Bull let him know uh that you know he he hasn't returned any of my calls and I'm thinking at this point oh my gosh like one of his closest friends from the company doesn't know he's dead and I'm I'm so I'm like am I the guy to tell him and so I say um I I don't I don't know if you know but I I had heard that he had passed and he said he passed what do you mean he passed I said well I I I heard he he he died so I don't I don't know when or he said wow he goes that's that's really odd because he was supposed to call me back I haven't heard from him in like three weeks and I went okay hang on a minute hang on they they thought they think he passed like months ago so you're saying you spoke to him three weeks ago he goes yeah but he was supposed to call me back and he hasn't called me back yet I said let me do let me make a couple of phone calls he goes well here here take his number so he gives me Denver's number and um I pause and go what am I am I am I supposed to call him am I supposed to call the company producing all right so I call back to the gas producer go hey I just got Denver's number and hashy says he's still alive how do you want me to proceed and they're like uh hang on a minute let us reach out first nobody knew he was with us still we we have old numbers we have you know we can't get in touch with them let us see if this is real and it plays out turns out he is he's fine um he's uh living in Texas Arana with his wife his his son at this point is alive his daughter's alive everyone whole family lives in Texas Texas Arcana um so I I wind up getting in touch with him the long and the short of that is is that as this process is going on um you start to realize how much these men care for each other and are checking in on each other and the importance of what we are about to do and I think every one of the guys involved from an acting standpoint started to realize that together we hadn't even met each other yet and we knew that this was going to be something special once you finally got to talk to him what was he like and how did you glean what he was all about so you could best portray that on screen the um the the first phone call with uh with Mr Randleman um was pretty amazing and terrifying uh I mean if you can imagine you know I think we think in our in our mind Minds we we take we take it to present where we are you think oh they these guys are going to do this amazing job with these guys lives and this thing like we we we talk about the current situation with all the information we have up till now what you don't realize is that these guys don't talk to anyone so now we take this take back what's really happening we go back to the beginning show has not been produced yet guys have been talked to about hey this book Stephen Ambrose that guy that you didn't really even want to talk to at the time or weren't sure if you trusted or kind of trusted but you did this interview and this book came out you're still not sure if you like the guy yet they're making a movie out of here that's they're making a movie you know we're doing a Min series what they make hey are you in the movie we're doing the movie that's what all the guys kept saying um so the movie uh you know have another level you have these actors reaching out who are going to portray you uh for better or worse now you know in their minds Hollywood everything up so it's like they're going to mess this up you know so we got to make sure that they get it right we go now put yourself in our shoes where I'm I'm the oldest guy in the the actor I'm the oldest I don't think Denver was he may have been one of the older older guys um I'm the oldest guy the oldest actor in in the company I'm 35 at the time when we shoot this and um everyone else is younger all the way down to to 19 years old I think some the younger guys and we're given a phone number and it's hey call this guy you know how does that phone call start hey I'm the actor who's going to betray you and the I mean where do you it's terrifying it's terrifying it's it for me it was the scariest phone call I had ever made in my life I literally was rehearsing picked up the phone dialed you know almost all the numbers probably six times hung up the phone I was like how am I going to what how do I start this how do I not screw this up because I've never done anything like this before um so I eventually call I get I get Vera on the phone I said uh hello uh my name is Michael cudlitz um the actor is going to be um portraying uh your husband in the miniseries and Vera who's just was just lovely um says oh yes you're the young man we've been waiting to hear from hold on so I was like okay this is good start this is great yeah this is awesome this is oh this is going to be easy so uh Denver picks up the phone he's like yep said oh hello sir uh my name is Michael cudlitz I'm the actor who's going to be portraying you in the uh in the miniseries he's like uh-huh so I was uh wondering if I could um maybe uh talk to you a little bit uh about uh and going through my mind is now I'm like well tell me about the war I'm what how stupid is tell me about the war what like no I I got nothing I got less than he has and he and he's given me nothing so I'm like um so uh I'm I'm calling really just uh to get to know you and um you know see if you can you know answer a couple questions so I can get a little bit of a sense about you know what you went through in the war and how you feel about it it now and you know your friends and you know people you keep in touch with so I'm just wondering if if if that's okay he's like uhhuh this goes on for probably 15 20 minutes and um I got and I got nothing I mean I'm getting nothing from him I I I don't know where I'm going to turn to next so I'm I'm literally I'm kind of wrapping it up and you know like okay well he's quiet got that from him and I said well let me um let me say goodbye to Vera um and uh maybe I'll call you in a couple of days and we can chat about some stuff and I'll think about some questions to have for you he's like okay hands the phone to ver and uh I start to say goodbye to ver and she says well did he did he answer all your questions I said well I said it's it's kind of hard to you know it's it's a weird subject matter she's like well would you like me to tell you about him and I was like okay here we go we spoke for an hour and a half about how they you know I forget exactly how they met but I know they went on this double date before they before you went off to the war but just telling me what kind of person he was what kind of man he was um the things he did for her prior to going away how you know how it was when he came back just an immense amount of information and ultimately phenomenal information for an actor because as an actor you realize you I don't need to know what he felt about what he did because that's how he felt what I really need to know is how other people perceived him because that's who we are when we move around in the world I could think I'm the most kind person in the world and if everybody else he like that dude's an he doesn't he doesn't take care of anybody that's who you are to the rest of the world you may in deep inside but if you're not letting your deep inside out and nobody you're not sharing it with anyone that's you know you are who you are perceived to be at least from the standpoint of of something that is I can use as an actor so getting information from ver was incredibly invaluable and uh we stayed really um really close until she passed away just a a a very very very sweet woman well the next thing that brought you all together I believe was the boot camp right mhm so that was pretty intense and uh how did that give you a better idea of what Mr randomman went through and how did it bring you together as a cast it um I I compare it to like I mean yes it was a boot camp but it was an actor's boot camp I mean it was like we didn't we didn't go through what the we didn't go through 99% of what these guys went through um and we are not soldiers and we are not you know we're actors we we got a little bit little taste of what it might be to possibly maybe do that um but we were able to to show it on screen in a way that is believable and the men supported and gave their stamp on um the boot camp I really equate to like a like a hell week or a couple of Hell weeks in in football for any for anyone who's done Sports uh um just really intense training uh full immersion for us it was it was two weeks I think 10 or 12 days um we went away to uh uh a local base where we're we were shooting in England it was a there was an abandoned part of this base that was shut down and old Barracks um and we just took it over you know and within two days we you know we show up as all you know recruits you know um fresh off the boat as it were uh just getting screamed at not don't don't know don't know anything you know and learning everything on the Fly um within two days we were all only referring to each other as our character names and our ranks and a day later we all moved up into our uh proper ranks that we're going to be portraying on the show so you know within 3 days I'm in charge of uh uh platoon uh Daman in who played winners is in charge of the company um you know all the staff sergeant are running the show being talked to in their ear but but every we're running this whole thing like like it's a a company um and horribly I'm sure at first but full immersion and having to do everything and not you know and being allowed to fail um there's nothing that lets you learn something more quickly and thoroughly than being fully immersed in it and succeeding and failing at it because the failures reinforce what it is and the successes give you the confidence to move forward um by the time we came back you know 10 days later I don't know what the hell we were but uh we were not the same you know 150 guys that that left uh it was it was pretty amazing experience you know in that time we did a lot of physical training calisthenic conditioning uh weapons training everybody was training on the specific weapons you would be using but then we were sort of cross trainining on the things that we would have known how to use from uh from a u extended basic training if we would have gone through it um but starting with the things that we were going to be using you know uh all the time so if you were written out in the script and you were really only you know you're part of the mortar team and you were working on Ms that's what you came out doing you still might not know how to really operate your your M1 you you were you were on mortars that's the thing you need to be incredibly proficient at and look and really know what was happening because uh the stuff in the script is written out you know the mortar team mortars are fired okay mortars are fire what does that entail well they have to know what they're doing so they were trained in that um and then we were trained how to to work as a company and how to work as uh you know smaller platoon um and and then squads um you know so at every aspect we were we were building this company Within These 10 days um Captain Dy uh Dale Dy who uh trained us um again you'll use the the hell week and allery for football he was the he was the coach that we hated uh and it was by dis because you have a common enemy and then you you you Bond behind your sort of hatred at the moment for you know for that who's making you do all this stuff that sucks and you you grow closer together from that and that's exactly what soble did to the company so there are a lot of parallels um that were happening uh David schwimer was brought in as soble to training to take over the company very late after we were we were bonding as a company they then they brought him in and knocked Damian down because Damian was no longer in charge he was in charge but now there was somebody in charge of him and he would come in and and just and literally just sort of screw everything up so now we were like you know screw that guy so he was building in Captain was building in the structure of us being in charge of who we were in charge of having to answer to who we had to answer to but then also putting uh Schwimmer as soble in charge of us who came in late didn't have to go through any of the stuff that we went through the prior eight days and all of a sudden this guy's in charge so we were like you know Screw you you know which is exactly the power structure that we have in in the show so there's a cab D is there's nobody better at doing what he does the dude's like Tony Robbins with a gun I mean he's just like this motivator of men as he calls it I'm a motivator of men and you know we were armed so it was it was a it was an incredible experience um and we made uh we made the connections with uh the other guys the other actors the other men in the company um we made these connections that we carried through the the project and still to this day uh to very very much like the men who served I want to talk about one particular episode that features you a lot and that's in Holland where you get separated and you end up in a barn and there's hand toand combat what are you thinking as you're doing it as you're preparing for it and thinking about what these guys actually did when it's one man against another and only one of them's going to come out alive I [Music] am I loved reading that episode because it it was just two men fighting hand to hand it's the first time we sort of seen that it's brutal because it escalates and the way it escalates in the end he you know Denver winds up stabbing him in the face basically with a Bayonet so it's it's a pretty graphic thing that we don't really see but we see the the bigger image of it and we know what's happened but that moment when when uh when Denver turns and sees and realizes that this young girl has witnessed that that pulls him back it reminds him of his Humanity um and I think the guys went through a lot of that because they were they were within the population uh of the people in Holland and in France and when they jumped they weren't just Ina in in encountering soldiers they were encountering uh the Village People and the town's people families so I think you're always being pulled back to reality to some degree you obviously discovered that and you knew you probably knew it would be already but it became a very critically acclaimed miniseries MH but more important to you I'm sure is what B randelman and ver thought about it so what did they give you as feedback he he loved it um uh they they all loved it uh you know VI said something really sweet uh when we first met for the first time which was in New York uh when we were headed to the the premiere um I was across the room and when I finally met met them she's like I knew it was you I could I could tell you have you have dev's back and I was like I have his back oh my God it's like she's like you move like him which is crazy because I've never seen him there's no film of him moving as a soldier think so some of it is applied you know that that she and some of it is just the the casting you know that they they just you know Meg leberman did an amazing job casting um we met in New York they saw the pro you know we we didn't see the project until the premiere generally speaking and I always say generally speaking I I haven't I had I had not met anyone who didn't love it who didn't think it was incredibly ACC ACC who didn't think it captured exactly what's going on with the company I always say most because I'm sure that there's someone out there who wasn't happy with it I'm sure there was someone who felt underrepresented I'm sure there was someone who felt that there was something that they did that we attributed to someone else um and we did because we couldn't we wanted to show all of the events that happened or as many of the events that we could and fill in the things that we didn't know with things that we knew happened but we couldn't put every character in in the project so I'm sure that there's some people out there who who don't feel represented who or who feel like we we botched a certain part of it um but I never heard from them we heard from the men the vast majority who felt incredibly uh uh positive about the project and who felt that the project did represent exactly what happened and from a representation standpoint I feel confident saying we we represented the men well and we feel like we we based on what we hear from them we feel like we we nailed it you know because we we did the work that we needed to do to portray those men in that time as best as we could now of course they're all gone mhm and so so the Legacy continues on thanks in part to the Ambrose book thanks in part to the miniseries but as long as you guys are together what do you see as your responsibility to keep their legacy alive um I think the show keeps their legacy alive um I think they will always be alive within us I think that's more of a personal relationship that we have um they don't care and they'd tell you if they were here they don't care they they the Fanfare is not you know the memory they they don't they don't talk about those things [Music] um they loved each other uh even the ones that pissed each other off and we saw it we we we got a really wonderful behind the the curtain look at it and they are been a wonderful dysfunctional group you know they are the Bad News Bears they are the baaha black sheep they are the they are these guys are are they're an amazing show um and they're amazing humans and would do anything for each other uh any of them called when they were when they were all with us and anyone needed anything they drop everything and go take care of them because they're they're part of this company so I think that that uh things like the miniseries and the fact that it's you know we're we're 20 years 22 years later um and it had just come back out on on Netflix and uh the show is number one for two weeks in a row it's insane 22y old show um I think it it it accurately depicts uh War something I will never truly know um but have experienced through them in a in a very small way um I just think it's a it's important to have it out there and to talk about these men because the life we live is because of them

Channel: American Veterans Center

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Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2024