How was it?
You were great in that.
What was it like, Thank you.
popping into that movie, in "Inglorious Basterds"?
I think, as you were describing,
like if somebody called me to play Colonel Sanders.
I got a call, "Quentin Tarantino wants to talk to you."
I was saying, "Okay."
Again, thought it was my brother, Paul.
Picked it up, it was Quentin Tarantino,
and he said he's doing a movie about World War II,
"would you want to play a British general?"
And I was like, "Yeah." (chuckles)
"Of course I want to play a British general."
And we talked about World War II movies.
We were supposed to talk for 45 minutes,
we ended up talking for eight hours about
Come on.
various war movies.
'Cause I love war movies.
I wouldn't want to actually be in a war.
Just like I don't think anybody wants
to be in an actual horror film situation.
But both my parents were in World War II.
My dad was in the Royal Engineers,
my mom was in the Royal Air Force,
and it shaped who they are.
And the Nazis were just bad guys,
just clearly Nazis, fascists,
horrible, horrible people that are...
They're the bad guys.
So, for me, all the World War II movies are
so, so clear of being on the right side
and fighting the good fight.
So, he called me up...
So I'd become a World War II aficionado,
and he blew my mind cause he said,
because he knew exactly what he was doing,
which is so fascinating.
And I have such a respect for him,
and I just think he's a hero.
But he said, just like with spaghetti westerns,
he said, "I'm making what's called a macaroni combat."
That's what the subgenre is.
Which is to say that it's a European knockoff
of an American war movie,
which is like (sighs) heaven, heaven.
(chuckles)
And he said that the term "macaroni combat"
is actually Japanglish.
It's because Japanese film critics
had coined that term of "macaroni combat."
And he talked about this kind of magical reality
he wanted to create.
And I was like, "Okay, that sounds good.
I wonder how that translates to the page."
Then I'm reading the script,
and I'm like, "Holy shit, they fucking kill Hitler.
They kill Hitler."
I couldn't believe it. I'm like, "I am so in."
And on top of it, it is that thing that I love,
that kind of British, like,
"We're here. The enemy's there."
You know?
"Your job..." you know, that whole thing.
Yeah. (chuckles) And I was just like...
(stammering)
And I loved every second of it.
Shot in Nazi headquarters.
No. Really?
Yeah. It was all this Albert Speer,
I think it's Potsdam, was in Berlin anyways, in Germany,
and everything in threes,
the type of architecture that makes you feel
that the state is more powerful than you, you know,
all that "ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer,"
crazy, oversized doors that are intimidating.
It then became a Soviet army headquarters.
And then the Americans,
when the Berlin Wall fell, the Americans had it,
and now they rent it out for movies.
My first day, I get there,
and I'm wearing my British army uniform,
and I'm just thrilled, you know?
I'm in this room filled with thousands and thousands
of World War II uniforms.
This is my dream come true.
And he goes, "You know, Quentin wants to see you."
So I go over there, and it's the scene
where Hitler is getting his portrait done.
(laughing) So I'm sitting there,
and then Quentin Tarantino was like, "And action!"
And then Hitler's leg, you know,
(speaking foreign language)
you know, the whole thing.
And I'm like, "This is a fever dream.
This is a fever dream."
You know?
I'm in the place where,
I think Leni Riefenstahl, had an office.
Like this giant... Right.
No, no, no. That's where I picked up my uniform.
And then I'm in Nazi headquarters,
and it's just like Gestapo headquarters or whatever.
And there's a guy dressed as Hitler wearing a wrestling cape
and a French guy painting him with like a mais-oui beret
and a mustache, and then it's "and cut!"
And then Tarantino turns around
and goes, "What do you think?"
I go, "What do you think what do I think?"
I'm like, "This is every Airfix 132nd toy soldier,
every Spitfire..."
I've made over 700 1/32nd scale,
1/72nd scale Spitfires in my life.
Every story of my parents talking about the Blitz
and my dad being in the Black Forest
in the second wave of Operation Market Garden.
It was just a dream come true.