There’s always a certain helpfulness for actors in wearing a costume, and I’m thinking of the SS uniform in particular. Did you find that it helped you go to that evil place in your mind easier?
JA: Of course. The first time after the costume fitting, was the first scene we shot where I put on the SS uniform to rescue my friend. We filmed that at 4 o’clock in the morning, or something ridiculous like that, and I tried not to over think it because, like I said, it’s not a formulaic thing where I thought “Okay, I’m a Nazi, I’m going to walk this way and behave in this manner.” He was just a young guy so he still walked the same, and he didn’t put on some pomp. But yeah, it’s very bizarre, talking to your friends, sitting in the trailer and about their exploits with the opposite sex on the weekend when you’re dressed in a f**kin’ SS uniform. It’s very peculiar indeed.
Sure, and watching you in the film, you notice the change in your body language when Elek wears the SS uniform, your shoulders are up more, you’re more intense…
JA: It’s like empowerment, and it is empowerment isn’t it? Anything that was put in his way, he just powered his way through it. Anyone that asked for paper work he would just shout them down with awesome conviction because he was acting too. That’s what he was doing. He was pretending to be someone he wasn’t and it was his biggest enemy.
As an actor, what did you find appealing about the story, not just the character of Elek, but the entirety of the film, and the subject of the Hungarian occupation?
JA: Anything to do with the Second World War or the First World War I would have been drawn towards, I’ve always been interested in it. From being in my school years, I was quite informed about the wars. I’ve done a lot of reading, and learning about what happened during different events. But I was just drawn to the fact that it took place between 1939 and 1945.
Do you think we’ll ever run out World War II stories?
JA: Are you saying this is f**king irrelevant?!?! (Laughs) No, no because there’s some many stories and you can’t ignore them because they’re all told from different perspectives and different lineages, and it just informs people again and again and again about what humans are capable of really.
As the film’s been screened, are you encountering people who were aware of the story and are glad to be seeing it on the big screen?
JA: Last night was the second time I’ve seen it [with an audience]. The first time was in Florida, it was submitted to a festival there and there was a large Jewish audience and a lot of tears. There was a Q&A afterwards and there was one lady in particular who said, “That was my father’s story,” and I asked her why, and she said, “My father didn’t dress up as an SS officer, but he went to extraordinary lengths to save people of his faith.” So it’s really meaningful and poignant to meet people who were directly affected by the Holocaust.
There must be a real weight of responsibility when you hear stories like that.
JA. It is, it is, and I get terribly nervous when the film is shown and obviously afterwards. I’m not Jewish, but I did my best to show this character, I’m just very nervous when people are watching the movie and how they’re going to judge it, the character and myself. It’s a funny one.
In terms of the average audience member, what do you hope they takes away from the movie?
JA: I would say it’s not just a reminder of those events, and what took place, but also the human spirit and the way that the smaller people can try and make a difference, and sometimes it can happen.
To finish up, your next movie is almost the complete opposite of Walking with the Enemy, a big sci-fi movie starring Tom Cruise, what can you tell us about Edge of Tomorrow, and what it was like working on that film?
JA: It was great! Obviously, it’s a Tom Cruise film, but to be a part of that was very thrilling. Just the size and the scope of the project was like nothing I’ve ever worked on before. It was a great experience, and we had a ball, but it was a much different kind of film. Less personal, let’s say.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Jonas very much for his time. Be sure to check out Walking With The Enemy when it opens in theatres this weekend.
