On June 8, '
Valkyrie' will be released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD. The
US edition came out May 19 and was the top-selling BD title for the week, according to Nielsen VideoScan. Blu-ray.com has been offered the opportunity to publish the transcript of a 'Valkyrie' panel press conference held in New York.
The conference was attended to by most of the cast and crew of the movie: actors Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel, and Jamie Parker; screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander; and director Bryan Singer.
Q: Starting with you Jamie, what it was like for each of you making Valkyrie?
Jamie Parker: Terrifying, and very easy. Basically I was the only person I hadn't heard of when we started the film, so to come in with such a long list of people I'd admired for such a long time was terrifying. But when you've got a cast of actors who are very good and the script is very good, the job's a lot easier. It was just my job to watch and learn from people who had much more experience and expertise than I did. It was a steep learning curve and a very happy one.
Christian Berkel: For me, being a German it was a really extreme, extraordinary challenge. Everybody thinks Germans know all about Stauffenberg and that's not so. People just know the name and a little bit of the story, but they didn't really accept him as being a hero. So this story is being told for the first time in this way and I'm very happy and proud to be a part of it.
Thomas Kretschmann: Chris McQuarrie writes the script, Bryan Singer is directing and Tom Cruise is the lead; they ask you if you want to be part of it, let me think about it... Of course it was great to be asked to be in the team. It does Germany great justice in the sense that not everybody was a Nazi.
Eddie Izzard: I'm somewhat encyclopedic on the second world war - I don't think there's anything me and Chris McQuarrie don't know together - so I knew about this story. To know that German people stood up, in a very difficult situation, risked their lives, and lost their lives. They are genuine heroes. To go in and do this story honour and try and get it as accurate as possible is great. For 12 years, a criminal, Hitler, came and kidnapped the country and, hopefully, we show here what ordinary decent citizens of that country were trying to do.
Terence Stamp: It was like becoming a member of a great gang and we all had a wonderful time, or at least I did.
Kenneth Branagh: Ditto. From the first time of meeting Bryan and Chris and Nathan and all the guys, and to hear Tom talk about it, it was clear that they were coming to a difficult subject with real excitement and knowledge and enthusiasm and passion to do the story justice, and still make it a fantastically entertaining film. That's a difficult thing to do...
Tom Cruise: This was an extraordinary journey for all of us. It's just great to have this cast of people that I admire - look at these guys, this is a very unique, talented group, so as intense as the film was, I couldn't wait to go to work with them every day. I didn't know this story - I knew pieces of it, like the bomb under the table, and I knew how it ended - but I found it utterly compelling. Reading it in history was like a suspense thriller. It's something that I'll never forget and I'm very grateful to Bryan, Chris and Nathan and all of you. Your help and support throughout made it really special. I'm very appreciative of being able to make this film and have the experience that I had.
Bryan Singer: Ditto to what Tom said. It wasn't always the easiest film, trying to keep the subject matter exciting, but for me it was a particular thrill because Chris McQuarrie and I grew up together and we used to make World War II movies in my backyard and then to suddenly be there with real aircraft and uniforms and sets and tanks and Tom and this incredible cast, it was a rare life experience for me personally to have with an old friend.
Christopher McQuarrie: My first experience with film was starring in an 8MM WWII epic directed by Bryan Singer in his backyard when I was 15 years old and I grew up watching films about WWII. I'm a lover of history and this was an opportunity to bring all those passions together, history, WWII, working with my friend. It's been a great really wonderful experience and I made a lot of new friends on this movie.
Bill Nighy: It was a wonderful time, it was a great script, a great story and a cast of very distinguished people. It was beautiful to be in Berlin, I'd never been, I'd always wanted to go there. We were honoured by the German authorities allowing us to shoot on locations where the real events took place. Myself, Tom and Christian were executed as it were on the very patch of earth where those men fell, which was a very serious moment. Tom and Bryan made speeches so that we could just mark the occasion and the extraordinariness of that event. And then to have it turn out to be a big entertaining package like this is something very gratifying to be a part of.
Nathan Alexander: Outside of Germany, the events of July 20th and the German resistance have unfortunately become a footnote in history, so it was a great opportunity to be able to tell this story and capture the spirit of the German resistance. Everyone at this table is such an amazing filmmaker and I learned so much doing this.
Carice van Houten: First of all, could I be in better company, as a woman with this row of men? Apart from that, I'm very glad that I could be part of this film and show the courage of the woman behind Claus von Stauffenberg. This must have been a very, very strong and courageous woman, so I'm very happy that there was room to show the emotion behind this and to show that these guys were people of flesh and blood, they had families, they had wives. I come from Holland where we don't even know what a trailer is, so to come on a set like that, where you're treated like a princess, and I was... I met Tom, who's a big movie star, and he's the most warm-hearted, supportive, goofy, great colleague, so I'm very proud and grateful.
After making this movie and learning about the German Resistance, do you see Germans and Austrians in a different light now and what were your personal experiences while filming over there?
Cruise: Most definitely, I've been to Germany many times and walked the streets and have always had wonderful experiences and I have many German friends. But to know this piece of history absolutely changed my viewpoint. Of course you always know it's never everybody, but to learn about this, it's one of those experiences. As a subject matter, it's always fascinated and horrified me. Even as a child I remember seeing documentaries about WWII, the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, and to know these people existed, to know how early on they resisted this tyranny, it was enlightened and validated what I had just innately felt. We were working on this film eight or nine months prior to shooting and it was extraordinary to be in Germany then and you start looking at the locations in a different way. We would discover that the bomb was actually stored at one of the homes. I met many family members that would share their family history, the stories of what happened to their parents, to their lives, what it was like for them before and afterwards and look at the photographs. It was moving to share stories about the people that we'd met in making the film. I have to say the people were great to us. Our German crew and working with the international cast, it was an experience I will absolutely never forget, ever. When we were making the film we knew this was not a documentary for the History Channel, and yet we felt such a tremendous sense of responsibility to represent the spirit of the resistance and these actual events as best we could and we've already put it in front of historians who have validated that accomplishment. We also made a documentary on the resistance that went along with it for the History Channel, which has gotten huge response here in the United States. Those that knew a piece of the story are thanking us for bringing the story to light, and those that didn't are amazed by it and engaged by it.
I have a question for the screenwriter. How important do you think Stauffenberg Catholic religion was in the whole reaction of those high aristocratic officers and politicians against the Nazi socialist party?
McQuarrie: Stauffenberg's religion, the religion of a great many of the conspirators, played a huge role in terms of influencing the moral choice that they had to make. It also created a unique dilemma for them because they had to reconcile their need to remove Hitler but also their conflict with the idea of murder. This was something that caused them a great deal of anguish and difficulty and they knew, based on their religious beliefs, that they would be damned for what they were attempting to do, but they knew that the greater good was more important than their own eternal judgement. It was an enormous part of that decision-making process that they had to overcome.
There was a bit of hysteria when you first came to Berlin. How did that inform your take on the story itself and the way you told it, and maybe even on incorporating a piece of history into entertainment culture. Did the two German gentlemen explain what was wrong when this was happening?
Singer: Well, I interpret it as kind of a knee-jerk reaction, mostly exaggerated by media and tabloids, and that could come from the fact that the history of Stauffenberg is known throughout Germany and the idea that the director of '
X-Men' or '
Superman Returns', or the star of '
Mission: Impossible' were coming there to maybe pervert it in some way and make it into some kind of action movie and disregard the history, that thought might have entered into some people's minds and that got carried in the winds of yellow press. But ultimately, and rather quickly, we started to articulate that we were the filmmakers who did '
The Usual Suspects' and films like that, Tom 'Born on the Fourth of July' and a huge, diverse body of work and characters and once that was conveyed, the support was there all the time. We shot at every location we had requested, some were accommodated, some we had to alter and we were allowed to do that, to bring back the sense, the history.
Cruise: It didn't change the approach of the film. Also you have to understand, the cast that we have, the crew, the public, it was not like that making the film, it was a feeling of tremendous excitement. The people knew that we have the utmost respect for the history and the story, and so I didn't feel that. The way that all of us approached the film and I've always approached my work, is in a very serious and professional manner. Being an actor, being a filmmaker, to try to make the best possible picture that I can make and represent the subject matter and the genre in the best possible way. When I go to make a film, I don't just make movies, I make things that I always feel very passionate about. Certainly this kind of subject matter offers a great challenge and interest because it is based on true events and I've only done that in Born on the Fourth of July, I played a real character, Ron Kovic, and before doing that, I met with Ron Kovic personally and spent a lot of time with Oliver Stone going through it. Also when I made '
The Last Samurai', a lot of that was based on that period in history. That film took me a year to prep, so it didn't change our approach or the film in any way. The film is what we talked about making from the very first moment that I read it, that Chris and Nathan wrote it and that Bryan came on to direct it, that didn't change. And I have to say, making the film was a great experience personally, for me and my family - to be there and to be welcomed the way we were and to share in the culture. The subject matter itself is controversial and as an American, I was just surprised, you don't realize how sensitive that is. Not that I would ever be cavalier about someone's history and particularly this. I know what these men and women were trying to do, and what they stood for and so I always approached it with great respect and wanted to do it justice and bring it to a broader audience. We did our documentary for the History Channel, and this is a film that's going to engage people in conversations and enlighten them to the story which I think is timeless; rising up against tyranny. That's why we opened with the oath. The oath is something that so struck me, it was so bizarre to swear an oath to one person, to not think for yourself, to not be able to have your own voice, your own ideas - that's something that is very strange to me in the way that I was raised. We tried to give the audience that experience right from the beginning to go, this is what it was like, to read that oath, going into this world, it's exciting because it's like when I first read the script. We screened it for audiences across the world and you find that there's a universality, that they're connecting with these characters and this story in a way that we want to with any kind of film, but then also to realize, 'Oh my gosh these events really did happen, these people really did exist', it's very powerful.
Kretschmann: I remember when we met in Germany, Tom had a never-ending hunger of knowledge, like what does it feel like to grow up... For me especially, I grew up in East Germany, so there are parts in the film which feel for me like similar, looking over your shoulder. I escaped and I had a special paranoia, but we had endless discussions and he so much wanted to know how it feels growing up there and what did your parents and your grandparents tell you? Everybody was so involved and wanted so much to be so close to the truth and do the subject justice, it was great. I was very touched by that. As for the other factor, for Germans and the film, it's like giving up control. The Germans think it's our story, but they don't do anything about it, not on a big scale, so nobody knows about it. So I think it's great that it's brought to the world now, and I'm very proud.
Berkel: I think every film you're going to do in Germany about this subject you will get some kind of problem with the German press and people because you've got 80 million people there and I sometimes feel you've got 80 million truths about WWII, and there is no definitive truth, that's the big problem. So everyone thinks, this one movie should explain everything, and there is no movie that is going to explain this because what happened is just simply unexplainable and it's so hard for Germans to understand. So in the beginning, it didn't have anything to do with Tom or United Artists, or America. When we did '
Downfall', we encountered many difficulties, many people were against it, the same thing happened here. It's just because everybody is so offended by what happened at this time.
Were the Stauffenberg kids involved in the process of making the film and did Tom and Carice get to meet any of them?
Cruise: We met family members.
And what was that experience like?
Singer: We had meetings with family members, some of them were the children and some are more private, but the meetings were extensive, going through the script scene by scene. Chris and Nathan took those meetings and then prepared me for them and that was one of the first great Germanifications of the movie. The Stauffenbergs' memory of their own father is what it is, he was executed when they were at a very young age, but the memory of their mother is different, and the memory of Germany's evolution after the July 20 incident, was really helpful. Being so closely connected to it, they offered a lot of insight. We kept that very intimate and private and then caught flak in the media from one of the children who eventually participated in the documentary that we did that Tom mentioned earlier, and was the most eloquent and cohesive and helpful to everything that we're trying to do, so that was cool. We also had lunch with Hitler's bodyguard for hours, but we didn't debate moral issues, we just got some information.
Van Houten: Well obviously I didn't meet Nina von Stauffenberg because she passed away a year before we started making it, but I did get an email from the family and they said they were very proud and also that I had apparently the same smile, so I'm happy.
Alexander: It was very useful talking not just to family, but we met a lot of people once we got to Berlin and we got to walk these streets and be in these locations and meet people that knew or were related to people that were involved in the German resistance. It really helped shape the script into what it was and it really helped being there and making the film in Berlin.
Singer: We knew a lot about the official history, how carefully documented it was, but until we got to Germany, only then did we really understand the depth of what we were doing. So every day was a process of learning and rethinking what it was that we were doing and getting more and more into the soul of the story.
On a lighter note, Hugh Jackman recently said that his wife likes it when he comes home in costume. Knowing that many women tend to like uniforms, how was it with you guys and your significant others?
Izzard: I think Hugh Jackman is the only one allowed to go home in his uniform. We couldn't because you're not allowed to wear swastikas around Germany. You can do a film in them but you're not allowed to wander around wearing swastikas. The interesting thing is the original uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss. Back in those days most democratic armies had uniforms made together with whatever they had left over, and the Nazis had these uniforms which were designed by Hugo Boss. It was the father and the son, and they were obviously very frowned upon after the war and sold the title, which has nothing to do with the label now.
Kretschmann: Post-war German uniforms were so ugly, especially the East German ones, they're horrible. But I know what you mean, after The Pianist lots of girls came up to me...
Izzard: It's the boots, the boots always work.
What kind of a man do you think von Stauffenberg was?
Cruise: I thought he was an extraordinary man from everything I've read. Someone who was respected by the soldiers, his door was always open and yet he didn't tolerate fools. He's someone who could work under a tremendous amount of pressure and stress, he was incredibly organized being a supply officer, he saw the micro and the macro of a situation, particularly early on when national socialism came in and, even before they went into Poland, it was on record in 1938 he opposed Hitler and thought someone ought to shoot him. He was someone who loved his children and thought very much not just of the future of his family and his country but also of the world and wanted Germany to have its place, not in terms of world domination, but to be part of the world and to be a moral leader in that world. That was his belief and what he wanted for his country and I think he was man of great integrity and noble ideas.
How did all you feel when you first entered the Wolf's Lair?
Izzard: Well it's a set, but it's interesting because the place where we built the set was a place where a lot of people died in one of the last battles, wasn't it?
Singer: Yeah, they had to sweep the area for mines. These areas that aren't heavily used for things, so they have to be swept for ordinance, live explosives that are still around from the second world war and we built a section on what was a Russian training camp, so a lot of the trenches that the guards are crouched down in are actual Russian training foxholes.
Cruise: I was amazed to find out that those mines were still out there in this beautiful forest. The first day Ken and I were there, I wanted to go for a walk and we had security saying, 'No, you're not allowed to walk in this area because it hasn't been swept yet for mines'. Things like that would happen all the time. You just don't think of things in that way. Remember that day?
Branagh: Sure, absolutely, and there were other instances, although I didn't go to where the Wolf's Lair set was. I remember, one morning with Bill, we were filming this scene where Tresckow's going to hopefully recover the bomb that didn't go off, and there was a big wide shot, the camera was outside this gymnasium, huge massive ceilings, the swastikas were up, there were about 300 lads in German uniform, and all the people involved in the film were outside the doors. So I pushed the swing doors open, and there was Bill at the end of the corridor, but everything else was 1944, and it was absolutely terrifying, because there were no cameras, everything was completely and utterly convincing and powerful and overwhelming. It would be so easy and simple to get caught up in this, everybody looks great, talking about uniforms, you could see how it would be important perhaps to be in that gang. So there were lots of moments in the film where the reality that Bryan and everybody were recreating was incredibly powerful.
Izzard: There's a story that Jamie Parker had about the night at the Bendlerblock that was very powerful...
Parker: It was very much along the same vein as what Ken was saying...On that particular night we were standing on the exact spot where the executions took place and we spent a lot of time sitting in the stairwell waiting for the shots to be set up and because there's going to be blank ammunition fired in the scene, you're given ear plugs. You stick them in your ears, sit in the stairwell, everybody's quiet waiting to go and you kind of go into sleep mode, the senses lock down a little bit and everything's very still and very suddenly the guys playing the guards grab you by the shoulders and bundle you out the doors. You come out the doors and it's dark and you can't see any cameras in the background, you can't see any tents with monitors, you can't see wardrobe or costume guys in Puffa jackets, all you can see are trucks with their headlights on, lighting up the sandbank where you're about to be shot and you've got a row of guys with rifles. You can't see anything of the make-believe. Bill's one of the warmest and open-hearted, open-faced people I've ever met and to see him suddenly violently taken over in front of a firing squad, is pretty horrendous. That's an all too rare luxury in acting, where the environment you're given to operate in is so potent and so powerful, and along with good actors, and exciting action, very little is required of you at that stage. If you start acting in a sense, you're kind of screwing things up. It was an extraordinary luxury just to ride that wave. It was an exceptional atmosphere that night and it's one that's happened a few times.