I'd never talked about it, ... I'd left the Marine Corps when I was 22 ... and I really left.
We were Marine snipers trained to kill someone from 1,000 yards away, and I could have done it all day if they'd wanted me to. And I definitely wanted to. I was really good at it.
I think I learned something more about that history of mine, ... There's a, you know, young kid who had been changed by the Marine Corps but could also retain some of his humanity, some of his personality, and that was confirmed for me.
I love Jake's performance, ... It's thoughtful, introspective, rough, brash, conflicted ... and those are things that I was. Through the combination of having read the book, Bill's script and Sam's direction, he really captured that young 20-year-old Marine at war with many things.