1917's George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman reveal mistake in epic battle scene | PopBuzz Meets

22 January 2020, 10:55

By Benedict Townsend

The stars of 1917 sat down with PopBuzz to share the secrets of the critically acclaimed new film

George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman, the stars of 1917, sat down with PopBuzz to discuss the heart-pounding new World War One epic, and George revealed exactly why he was brutally knocked down - twice - in one of the film's most famous scenes.

In 1917, at a certain point (no spoilers here lads, don't worry) George's character Lance Corporal Schofield decides to run horizontally along the front line of a massive trench, just as a ton of his fellow soldiers are spilling out. The dynamic sequence was the climax of the film's trailer and features Schofield getting knocked over no less than two times.

Seeing as every other part of 1917 seems to have been meticulously planned by director Sam Mendes and DOP Roger Deakins, we assumed these body-checks were pre-planned, but George told us that was not the case.

"No, no, no," George told us, with a laugh. "We had rehearsed for weeks... it was such a big setup, it took five hours to reset... and then we came to do the take... it became a lot more real and I just got hit. But the rule was always, unless you hear Sam (the director) say 'stop', keep going, there could be something in it. It could work and that one of those mistakes that made it in."

"And also when we were doing it we thought - of course he would get knocked over. Of course that's going to happen. I'm really pleased that's in there, I love those little accidents."

1917 - Official Trailer [HD]

1917 first attracted interest after the director Sam Mendes revealed that the interview film would be constructed out of one - you heard that right, one shot. Which is, of course, a ridiculously difficult task for a two hour long movie that features explosions, gunfire and a literal army of extras.

We dug into all the nitty gritty of how the team pulled off that wildly complex task in our lovely interview with the lads that you can see above. We touched on the many jaw-dropping cameos (Benedict Cumberbatch! Andrew Scott!), the agony of messing up a five minute long take right at the end and the lads' opinions on the final Game Of Thrones - and more!

Watch the full interview by hitting play on the video at the top of this article or head to our YouTube channel.

1917 is out now.