“Devotion” sees Jonathan Majors portraying Korean War hero Jesse Brown alongside Glen Powell (Tom Hudner), Joe Jonas (Marty Goode), Christina Jackson (Daisy Brown) and Thomas Sadoski (Dick Cevoli), directed by J.D. Dillard. Watch as they join CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell to discuss the real-life story behind the action/drama and all the behind-the-scenes details and secrets.
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00:00I'm glad the world is finding this love of aviation.
00:02And if you love Top Gun, I think you'll love Devotion.
00:06Finding the love of aviation through the wonderful
00:10Dwayne Powell, ladies and gentlemen.
00:13Ready, set, hit it!
00:23Jonathan, I want to start with you.
00:24What is the one aspect of this story
00:26that you wish you could have turned to Jesse
00:28and just asked him for more details
00:30about his personal experience?
00:33Wow, it's funny you say that
00:35because that's actually something that we did.
00:39You know, we would take time sometimes between takes,
00:43sometimes before a scene,
00:45and JD would come up, our director,
00:47and say, is there anything else Jesse wants to say?
00:49And I would just get quiet and listen, you know?
00:53And sometimes a new feeling would arise
00:55or an image would arise.
00:58For instance, there's a moment where I'm speaking
01:01to Tom Hudner, played by this man here,
01:06and I'm telling him about the swim test.
01:08And there's a line in the film that says,
01:12but every time I made it out,
01:15that wasn't in the original script.
01:17That moment came from JD being,
01:21is there anything else that needs to be said?
01:23And I sat there and, you know,
01:26we sat there and waited,
01:28and then we took it again,
01:30and that line came out.
01:31So I'm glad you asked that question
01:34because it's something we actually practiced.
01:36So yeah, thank you.
01:38It's also one thing I've learned from Jonathan
01:41is in the chaos of a film set,
01:44never to, especially when you're playing
01:46a real life person who you really care about
01:50and you have one chance to tell the story,
01:52he's a guy who can calm the chaos
01:55and really listen and find those moments
01:58and find truth in what could be inauthentic
02:02in either actor's hands.
02:04That's a great question.
02:05It is a great question.
02:07I would like to know what his drink order was.
02:09Oh, yeah.
02:10I just feel like it was very like Bond-esque
02:14when he would walk up to a bar
02:15and, you know, the shake and not stir thing
02:18would be like, and it wouldn't even be that impressive.
02:21Or, I don't know what it was,
02:23but I feel like it got
02:25a lot of information about Marty
02:27and I got to listen to audio of him
02:29from a podcast he did right a year before he passed.
02:32So I got a lot of detail,
02:34but then it was like the small things,
02:35you just, not even for the role,
02:37just because you feel like you know the person
02:39at some point and you feel like
02:41you're become like friendly with them.
02:44And I think that would have been nice.
02:49At the dinner table,
02:50when Jesse tells her that he has to leave,
02:55J.D. having the experience of his father
02:57being a naval aviator
02:58and his mom being the wife of a naval aviator,
03:02when we had that conversation,
03:03it was definitely this me looking to J.D.
03:08as a, where do you want me to go?
03:10It's the hardest scene for me in the film,
03:13specifically because of some things
03:15that Jesse says in the film to Daisy.
03:17And so that would have been a perfect just,
03:20you know, cut and go over and what were you feeling?
03:24What were you thinking?
03:26Cause I know you don't want him to go,
03:28but this is what we've been working towards.
03:31And so there was, that's the one scene
03:33where I would have used all the guidance
03:36that I could have had.
03:38We knew this day might come.
03:39Doesn't make it any easier.
03:42Lieutenant Tom Hugner.
03:43Jesse Brown.
03:44It's good to meet you.
03:46Jonathan, what is the motivation
03:47behind Jesse hooking his thumbs
03:48into his flight suit the way that he does?
03:50Oh, what are you talking about?
03:52No, no, I just, it's interesting when you play,
03:58when you play someone that actually existed
03:59and made impact on people,
04:01you just study and study and study and study.
04:05And I saw an image,
04:08I saw a picture of him with his hands in that way.
04:12And it just stuck in my head.
04:15And then of course, you know, the way my brain works,
04:19I think I was driving in North Carolina
04:23to the airport to get to Atlanta.
04:25And I saw a buzzard.
04:29And I went, hmm, interesting.
04:32And then I thought of vultures roll.
04:34And I thought, hmm, interesting.
04:36And I thought of looking and accessing.
04:39I remember the picture and I went, aha, there it is.
04:44You know, there it is.
04:45So it was a, working backwards.
04:47I saw an image of him standing there in his flight jacket
04:53and went, okay, we're gonna go with that, you know?
04:56And it just stuck.
04:58You know, there's something very peculiar about Jesse
05:02from the physical articulation of that to the hat,
05:05which he actually wore,
05:07to the fact that his flight suit was a different color,
05:12you know, in the latter part of the story
05:15and the book and the mission, et cetera.
05:17So I saw that and just honed in on that specificity.
05:20And it really stuck.
05:22And that's what we see in the film.
05:24It's wonderful to watch Jonathan's brain work
05:28in terms of creating this character,
05:32because I had the, you know,
05:34I had the ability to meet Tom Hudner
05:36and really understand, talk to a lot of his relatives
05:39and really understand a more three-dimensional person
05:42where Jonathan, the research that he had to do
05:45was much more excavation.
05:49I mean, you really, really had to dig to find those things
05:52and build that character.
05:54And there is nothing out of place with that character.
05:58Everything is done with intent.
06:00And that's the one thing that Jonathan does
06:03is nothing is left untouched in terms of performance.
06:09Little things like just body language and things like that,
06:12there's intent to everything.
06:13And it's really cool.
06:14As a fellow actor and his co-star of this movie,
06:17to watch someone with that level of thoroughness and intent,
06:21it's a wonderful thing to watch.
06:22It gives you a lot of confidence
06:23that you're gonna make a great movie.
06:25What are you gonna find out
06:26about your wingman cruising at 10,000 feet, Lieutenant?
06:30I think audiences are going to watch this film
06:33and your aerial photography specifically,
06:35and just, you know, in a jaded sense,
06:37assume that it's green screen and CGI.
06:40So I would like to know to what percentage,
06:43if any, are visual effects that you use
06:46and how much of it is practical?
06:48So the goal from the beginning
06:49was we need to put as much of this in camera as possible.
06:52And that's only because I feel like
06:54audiences are getting savvier, they're getting smarter,
06:57even if, you know, you don't know exactly the terminology,
07:00you know when something's off.
07:02So what we wanted to do was,
07:05step one was like we had to find
07:07as many of these planes as possible,
07:09which is a difficult task in and of itself
07:12because they're World War II,
07:14inter-Korean war era aircraft.
07:16I think there are only 12 flying Corsairs in the world left
07:20and we had six of them, you know.
07:22So that was just step one.
07:25And it was like the first thing I said
07:27when I met to even, you know, get to be a part of the film.
07:30But, you know, given that we have scenes
07:32where you need 25 Corsairs,
07:34like when you start to sort of prioritize
07:37what the process is going to be,
07:39it was really like, okay, the action closest to camera,
07:42let's have that be practical.
07:44And then we'll fill it out, you know,
07:46when we need to fill the sky with all these other aircraft,
07:49you know, copy paste, and I know it's not that easy,
07:52but copy paste, set more planes in the background.
07:54But, you know, it's all motivated by the fact that like,
07:58this is a character story, it's a relationship story,
08:01the tactile nature of the drama has to be sold
08:05both at a dinner table as much as it does in the cockpit.
08:09And if the drama's good, it's scarier in the air.
08:12And if it's scary in the air, the drama's better.
08:14I mean, it creates this kind of feedback loop.
08:16So, look, there are plenty of visual effects in the movie,
08:21but, you know, my sort of feeling coming into the film
08:25is that in-camera is actually not just an approach,
08:28it's also an aesthetic, you know,
08:31and that's where we really wanted to sort of,
08:33you know, push things if we could.
08:35You belong in the sky, Jesse.
08:38It's a man!
08:40Just remember you belong down here with us too, okay?
08:43Glenn, there's gonna be comparisons to Top Gun Maverick.
08:45It's just unusual that they come out the same year.
08:47But in what way were the experiences different for you?
08:53Well, it's wild because, you know,
08:55I've been developing this story for probably four or five years,
08:59you know, read the book even longer than that.
09:03And then, you know, so it's interesting.
09:05This journey actually predated Top Gun,
09:09but what was wonderful about the experience
09:11is a lot of the lessons that I learned on Top Gun
09:13from Tom and Chris McCrory, Joe Kaczynski, Jerry Bruckheimer,
09:19you know, really informed some of the things
09:21that we got to do in this movie,
09:22mostly in terms of practical flying and technology.
09:28But in terms of these movies, I would say they complement
09:32each other in really wonderful ways,
09:34but they could not be two more distant brothers
09:37in terms of what they are and what they say.
09:42But again, I have a beautiful love of aviation,
09:46and I'm glad the world is finding this love of aviation.
09:49And if you love Top Gun, I think you'll love Devotion.
09:53Finding the love of aviation through the wonderful Glenn Powell,
09:57ladies and gentlemen.
09:58Show off.
09:59That was pretty good.
10:00It's good.
10:01You know, Joe, to that extent, actually,
10:03there's this cliche that actors on military pictures
10:06or projects form deeper bonds.
10:09And I'm just curious if, you know,
10:10the phrase band of brothers sort of comes to mind.
10:13Is that an actual cliche or is there truth to it?
10:16I think there's definitely truth to it.
10:20I think we were very also lucky that everyone,
10:28you know, I guess gave a damn.
10:30And also cared about this project.
10:33You know, we were in, I don't even remember which wave of COVID.
10:37And so it's like forced us to have that camaraderie,
10:40just being able to do what we love and show up to work
10:44and look at everyone from catering to, you know,
10:48DPs to the top saying everyone's here for a reason
10:51and they're dedicating their time.
10:53And knowing that very well,
10:56we're risking things being around in close proximities.
10:59But I think to be able to look at each other
11:04and work really hard and put the pen to paper,
11:10I think that was really essential for us.
11:12It's good to know the men you're flying with.
11:16See what they're fighting for.
11:19What are you fighting for?
11:20Hoping to find that out.
11:22JD, the movie has been making the rounds
11:24at multiple film festivals.
11:25And I'm curious, what does exposure in places
11:27like, you know, something as big as Toronto
11:30or even something like Savannah or Middleburg
11:33do for a movie like this?
11:36You know, it's one of my favorite parts of the process
11:40because, you know, as digital as everything is,
11:45there still is this weird thing
11:46where sometimes you just feel disconnected from the audience.
11:50And to get to tour with the film is so empowering and exciting
11:55and it kind of feeds the, like,
11:57oh my God, this is why we do this.
12:01You know, to stand, you know, outside of the theater
12:05and talk to people, talk to people who are like,
12:08you know, my dad fought in Korea and he never talked about it.
12:11Or, you know, like my son has a dream
12:15and is thinking about giving.
12:17And you just, you see the power of movies
12:20and it transcends our film.
12:21It's just, you just see the power of, you know,
12:24what it is to have a shared experience
12:26in whether it's on your sofa or in a, you know,
12:29a dark room with a couple hundred people.
12:32But I'm really grateful to be able to take the film
12:34on the road because you get to talk about it.
12:37You get to talk about it with people
12:39who have freshly just seen it.
12:40And to see all the points of entry
12:43that folks have to a film is just, I mean, I'll say this.
12:48On my monitors when we shoot,
12:49I keep a little piece of gaff tape that says,
12:52what do you want them to feel?
12:54Because I think my job at the end of the day
12:56is really about answering that question
12:58in every frame that rolls through the camera.
13:01And when you go to a festival, you actually meet them.
13:05You meet the people that you spent years
13:08asking the question, what will they feel?
13:10And now they're here, you know,
13:11and you get to shake their hand and hear what they felt.
13:14And that I've only really started to understand
13:17through the process of sharing this film.
13:19And even if they don't have a direct connection to the film,
13:22just them being introduced to this story
13:26is also something that I'm hearing a lot of,
13:27just like the fact that we did not know that this happened,
13:30we didn't know their names.
13:32You know, they're astounded
13:33and it's still something that they carry with them.
13:36Remember what you're fighting for.