12/17/2023 0 Comments Ermey mail call![]() But the way the Academy works is, “Oh, we already gave it to a guy who played a drill instructor. Had Lou Gossett Jr not won the Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, Lee would have won for that performance. I mean, Lee was a drill instructor, so there was a natural ability, but he didn’t have the training. Leon worked for hundreds of hours with Lee to turn him into that character. It’s testament to his direction that you have a character that might normally be considered a bad guy – the drill instructor, played by Lee Ermey – and yet nobody cheers, nobody’s happy, when the drill instructor gets shot and killed, because you know that guy was trying to teach those guys to work together. Stanley was really making a film about the effects of war – what happens when young men who’ve been taught their whole lives to respect life then become killers. Stanley Kubrick working on set in Beckton. The street fighting, I think, is one of the things that makes the film timeless. It would have been a completely different film if we’d gone to the jungles and shot Vietnam that way. I was never certain why we shot the film backwards, but I knew we had to be out of Beckton gasworks by a certain date because it was scheduled for demolition. We did the Vietnam scenes first, before bootcamp, but they started to overlap, and there was maybe a month where I was wearing a wig, because my head had to be shaved. We shot the battle scenes at Beckton gasworks, London, near the Isle of Dogs. He’s not fat and he’s not southern, but he’s a great actor.’ So Vincent auditioned and Stanley said, “He’s perfect – will he gain the weight?” I said, “That’s up to you guys.” I got to London, and Stanley said, “You know, we have a terrific cast, but I don’t have anybody to play Gomer Pyle.” I said, “I’ve got somebody. ![]() ![]() I thought Vince was an amazing actor, and I promised to call him if anything came up. I suggested Vincent D’Onofrio join the cast.
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