‘The Terminal List’ Star, Taylor Kitsch, Had An Eye-Opening Experience Training Against Actual Navy SEALs: “That’s How Good These Guys Are”

If you watched the 2013 movie Lone Survivor and thought it was an incredibly real and authentic retelling of the actual events, the preparation and training that actors went through for it likely explain that.

Taylor Kitsch has been in plenty of recognizable movies and TV shows throughout his career, including but not limited to John Carter, Lone Survivor, American Primeval, The Terminal List: Dark Wolf and, obviously, Friday Night Lights. If you are in need of a refresher, Kitsch played running back Tim Riggins in that iconic series.

The 44-year-old Canadian actor has made a living playing tough guy, military types throughout his career. That’s what he does best, and that’s who he plays in the The Terminal List: Dark Wolf. In fact, the new show is a prequel series to the original The Terminal List, and focuses in on Kitsch’s character, Ben Edwards.

Before he starred in The Terminal List, Kitsch really showed off his acting chops – and military training – in the 2013 film Lone Survivor. He starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in the movie that told the real story of a 2005 Navy SEALs mission that went wrong in Afghanistan. SEALs Marcus Luttrell, Michael Murphy, Danny Dietz and Matthew Axelson were on a surveillance mission when the Taliban became aware of their presence, and a lopsided battle ensued.

Only Marcus Luttrell (who is played by Mark Wahlberg in the film) survived.

So when they decided to make those events into a motion picture, there was a sense that they wanted to do the situation and the back-against-the-wall effort by the Navy SEALs justice. Taylor Kitsch spoke on the preparation and training that went on ahead of the movie in a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience:

“The first day was live fire, and that f***ing gets you right. You do not f*** around, and they make sure of it. I hadn’t met Marcus yet. Foster had drove down from Texas to New Mexico with Luttrell, and I was pretty jealous of that. I was like, ‘Ah, you get to spend some real time with Marcus.’ I was playing Mike, who is Marcus’ best friend.

We’re on this range doing live fire, upside-down reloads, combat reloads, jamming, blindfolds. It was full on. Marcus comes, everything goes full stop. Right when he’s coming, there’s a PA on the other side and she’s bringing banana shakes out, which is not a good look for these actors.”

Marcus Luttrell, who has quite literally been through hell before, apparently wasn’t happy with the actors and their preparation, and said they shouldn’t get shakes in between training.

Marcus’ presence in the training process continued when Kitsch and the others moved to simulation training against real life SEALs, with rounds that the actor refers to as sim-unition:

“It’s just a beautiful experience man. The second week of training, we were doing sim-unitions. This will break skin. They hurt. It’s hard plastic, paint-tipped (bullets). My guy (I’m playing) decides if we push left, push right, if we engage, get the f*** out of here. I gotta make these calls.

The SEALs are in Taliban gear. We meet up at the bottom of this mountain and they are all in Taliban gear. They’re like, ‘Give us 10 minutes, and when you get ambushed, we’re gonna watch and we’re gonna engage and we’re gonna see what you do. See what you’ve learned the last week.'”

Nothing like throwing some Hollywood actors to the wolves.

Kitsch says the training was much like how the finale of the movie is presented. And he told Rogan that he remembers Emile Hirsch, who played Danny Dietz in the movie, being a little overwhelmed by the training that felt all too real to what actual service members experience:

“You’re just walking, right? Just like we are in the film. (You’re) waiting to get ambushed. You know s*** is about to hit. They hit, and you hit the ground right away to figure out where the bullets are coming from.

You can hear them, which really sets you straight. I’m looking over at Emile and I’m like, ’12 o’clock, they’re straight up in these trees. Push right. Get to cover.’ Amile is like, ‘Ah, f***, alright. This is f***ing intense.’ I’m like, ‘Push right.'”

Kitsch went on to say that Marcus Luttrell came out and ripped the actors for not taking the training seriously, and the actual SEAL apparently really dug into Kitsch for not commanding his guys as if they were in a real, life-or-death situation. The Canadian actor never forgot that, and it’s undoubtedly carried into other roles outside of the Lone Survivor.

Taylor Kitsch says that they got better over time, but never achieved the level of the actual Navy SEALS they were simulation fighting against:

“Beautiful learning curve for me. We got better, but one time I was proud of myself. We got in a ditch. It was sim-unition, and we’re all here, and I’m looking down range like, ‘We’re in one. We’re still in the fight.’ And then no joke, a sniper SEAL grabs my shoulder and he’s like, ‘Boom.’ And I’m like, ‘Where the f*** did you come from?’ That’s how good these (guys) are.”

The post ‘The Terminal List’ Star, Taylor Kitsch, Had An Eye-Opening Experience Training Against Actual Navy SEALs: “That’s How Good These Guys Are” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.